Fresh blast near Colombo church as bomb squad tries to defuse explosive

Another fresh explosion rocked Colombo on Monday. The blast took place in a van near a church in where scores of people were killed on Sunday. Bomb squad officials were trying to defuse it when the bomb went off, according to news agency Reuters.

Meanwhile, as many as 87 bomb detonators were found on Monday at a bus station in Colombo, police said, a day after a series of deadly blasts killed 290 people and wounded more than 500 others in the island nation.

The police initially found 12 bomb detonators scattered on the ground. A further search revealed 75 more.

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 a.M. (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress.

Explosions were also reported from three five-star hotels - the Shangri-La, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury in Colombo.

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