Easter Sunday attacks: Sri Lanka revises down death toll to 253

Sri Lanka on Thursday revised down the death count from the Easter Sunday blasts by more than 100, to ‘about 253’, saying the previous figure of 359 was due to a "calculation error". 

Authorities earlier said that nine suicide bombers, believed to be members of local Islamist extremist group called National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), carried out the devastating blasts that killed 359 people and wounded more than 500 others.

However, Dr Anil Jasinghe, the Director General of the Health Services, said the larger death toll was released as a result of a calculation error. "The approximate total of the dead would be 253 and not 359 as reported in media," he said.

Jasinghe said that at least 485 injured were admitted to six hospitals throughout the country.

"By 10 a.m. today, the casualty number at hospitals has been reduced to 149. Only 6 had died in hospitals," Jasinghe said. On April 22, an estimated figure of 280 dead was released.

"As it was not easy to count the correct number of dead due to extensive damages suffered in some cases, the figures issued were all approximate numbers," he said.

Jasinghe said that those who died in the three hotel blasts were mostly beyond recognition as their body parts had suffered comparatively more damages than those who died at church blasts.

Sri Lanka Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando resigned from his post the attacks. The development comes a day after Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena asked him to quit over his failure to prevent the deadly suicide blasts despite having the prior intelligence inputs about the attacks. 

Fernando handed over his resignation letter on a request made by President Sirisena, Colombo Gazette reported.