Sri Lanka authorities were warned of attacks two weeks ago, says minister

Sri Lankan authorities received warnings two weeks before the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks that killed at least 290 people, a cabinet spokesman has said.

“Fourteen days before these incidents occurred, we had been informed about these incidents,” Rajitha Senaratne told a press conference in the capital, Colombo, a day after the bombings, which also injured at least 500 people. He also said the names of some of the suspects had been given to authorities earlier this month.

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“On 9 April, the chief of national intelligence wrote a letter and in this letter many of the names of the members of the terrorist organisation were written down,” Senaratne, Sri Lanka’s health minister, said the intelligence memo warning about the attacks had named the radical Islamist group National Thowheeth Jama’ath as the perpetrators.

National Thowheeth Jama’ath is a newly formed group in Sri Lanka and a strong proponent of the global jihadist movement. It is known for being a virulently anti-Buddhist and has been linked to the vandalisation of Buddhist statues. Four of its members were arrested in January.

A view of the damage at St Sebastian’s church in Negombo.Photograph: Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters

Senaratne told the press conference investigators believed those who had carried out the attacks were all Sri Lankan nationals, but did not rule out that the attackers had international assistance. A source in the investigation told the Guardian that there appeared to be some links to an Indian extremist outfit, but no other groups so far.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the bombings.

The police had 24 suspects in custody on Monday. Police spokesperson Ruwan Gunasekara said they had seized a van and driver they believe transported the suspects into Colombo, and also raided a safe house used by the attackers.

Telecommunications minister, Harin Fernando said: “Right now our biggest priority would be to find what really led these eight or 10 or 12 men to carry out this attack,” he said. “But we are not ruling out a coup as well.”

Senaratne emphasised that the prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, and his cabinet had not been privy to the warnings about possible attacks because they were not invited to the national security council meetings, which are led by Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena.

Soldiers stand guard in front of St Anthony’s shrine on Monday.Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

“The prime minister was not informed by these letters and revelations,” Senaratne said. “We are not trying to evade responsibility but these are the facts. We were surprised to see these reports.”

The remarks by the prime minister and his cabinet ministers have led to concerns that there will be a politicisation of the security failures that led to the attacks.

The rift between Wickremesinghe and Sirisena is well known, after the president’s unsuccessful attempt to sack the prime minister in October, and there are fears the country could be thrown into political turmoil once again.

Since that constitutional crisis, Sri Lanka’s two most senior leaders have in effect run parallel governments with little communication between the ministries and institutions they each control.

The divide may have deepened the chaos in the aftermath of Sunday’s attacks: the Guardian understands that Wickremesinghe sought to call a security council meeting with the country’s armed forces chiefs in the aftermath of the attacks on Sunday morning but found none of them would come to his resident at Temple Trees without the authorisation of Sirisena, who was overseas at the time.

The country was still on high alert on Monday afternoon. There was chaos outside St Anthony’s church, which had been gutted in one of the blasts, after a suspicious package was discovered in a van that had been parked nearby since Sunday.

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People ran screaming from their homes carrying their children in the densely populated neighbourhood, as armed police rushed in the other direction. Shortly after, officers detained a young man but their attempts to put him in a police car were blocked by a crowd that formed quickly.

They started beating the man, forcing the police to take shelter with him inside the nearest building as some of the crowd tried to force their way inside the building.

“See how we are living?” said one man, as people ran past him screaming and in tears. “How can we manage like this?”

A few minutes later, an explosion was heard and thick smoke rose into the air, prompting new waves of fear. Police said the sound was their bomb disposal units defusing the suspicious package.

Police also discovered 87 bomb detonators at Colombo’s main bus station on Monday afternoon.

Indian newspapers displaying coverage of the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka.Photograph: Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images

While the government-imposed nationwide curfew was initially lifted at 6am, in the wake of the ongoing security concerns authorities announced it would be reinstated from 8pm on Monday until 4am on Tuesday.

In Negombo, north of the capital, yellow crime scene tape stretched around the perimeter of St Sebastian’s church, a day after a blast ripped through the congregation there.

The courtyard was littered with flowers, shattered stained glass and red and pink debris from the building. Catholic sisters and priests took turns peering through the destroyed windows of the church at the carnage inside.

“We cannot explain this,” said Father Danushka Fernando. “This was supposed to be the mass of the children, so lots of women and children were present.”

In the church, investigators wore balaclavas as they surveyed the scene. Pews were strewn across the floor around the point near the back of the church where a terrorist had detonated his backpack.

Parts of the roof and walls had been blown away, revealing the bricks and blue tarpaulin underneath. Red candles were still in bunches at the ends of some of the pews.

Shoes at St Sebastian’s Catholic church in Negombo.Photograph: Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters

Another priest in the courtyard said he was struggling to contain himself. “If this is done by who I suspect – is this their religion?” he said.

“This is insanity. As leaders we must ask people to love one another,” he added, declining to give his name. “But speaking as a person, I am angry.”

Hundreds of Sri Lankans and at least 30 foreigners – including those from the UK, Turkey, Japan, the Netherlands, China, Portugal, Australia and India – were killed in the coordinated attacks, the worst in Sri Lanka since the civil war ended a decade ago.

On Monday morning, Wickremesinghe visited one of the churches destroyed in the blast. “Orders have been given to find those responsible,” he told reporters at the scene. “They will be given all powers they want. We cannot allow these crimes to take place. We will also look into the shortcomings. For the next few days the important thing is to maintain peace.”

The eight blasts, which police confirmed were suicide bomb attacks, seemed designed to cause maximum casualties, targeting worshippers at Easter Sunday services and guests having breakfast in the Shangri-La, Kingsbury and Cinnamon Grand hotels in Colombo.

One witness described a suicide bomber detonating his device when he reached the front of a buffet queue at the Shangri-La restaurant. A British woman and her 11-year-old son are widely reported to be among those who died while having breakfast at the hotel.

Details about those who had died in the attacks began to trickle out slowly on Monday morning. One of the first Sri Lankans confirmed dead was the celebrity chef Shantha Mayadunne, who had been having breakfast at the Shangri-La with her family when the blast went off.

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The police declined say which site had been worst hit or to break down the death toll. However, it is thought at least 50 people were killed at St Sebastian’s church in the seaside town of Negombo and at least 160 people were injured in a blast at St Anthony’s shrine in Colombo.

A government block on social media sites and apps such as Facebook and WhatsApp remained, which the government said was to prevent the spread of misinformation that could further inflame tensions.

As the curfew lifted on Monday morning in Negombo, where St Sebastian’s church had been overflowing with people attending the Easter service, members of the congregation gathered to take in the devastation.

Among them was Dilip Fernando, who had narrowly avoided being inside the church during mass because it was too crowded, but believed his family members had seen the suicide bomber, a “young and innocent looking man”, entering St Sebastian’s with a backpack.

“At the end of the mass they saw one young man go into the church with a heavy bag,” Fernando told Agence France-Presse. “He touched my granddaughter’s head on the way past. It was the bomber. He was not excited or afraid. He was so calm.”