87 bomb detonators found at Central Colombo bus station: Sri Lanka Police

The Sri Lankan Police found 87 bomb detonators at the main bus station in Colombo on Monday, a spokesman said, hours after President Maithripala Sirisena declared nationwide emergency from midnight in wake of the deadly Easter Sunday blasts that killed 290 people and wounded 500 others in the worst terror attack in the country's history.

The police initially found 12 bomb detonators scattered on the ground. A further search revealed 75 more, a police statement said. On Easter Sunday, a string of eight powerful blasts, including suicide attacks, struck churches and luxury hotels frequented by foreigners in Sri Lanka, killing 290 people, including six Indians, and shattering a decade of peace in the island nation since the end of the brutal civil war with the LTTE.

The blasts - one of the deadliest attacks in the country's history - targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa at around 8.45 am (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress. 

RELATED

Explosions were also reported from three five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury in Colombo. The decision to impose emergency was made during a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) chaired by President Sirisena.

The NSC has announced plans to impose a "conditional state of emergency" from midnight, said a statement from the president's media unit.