Awful: 150+ Dead After Hotel & Church Explosions In Sri Lanka

By: Ben Schlappig

Published: April 21, 2019

17 comments

This is heartbreaking. Sri Lanka is a beautiful country with incredible people, so to see the news of the Easter attack in the country today is just awful.

While some of the details are still emerging, 150+ people are dead and 500+ people are injured after there were at least seven explosions across the country (primarily in Colombo), including at three churches and four hotels.

Obviously the attacks on churches are every bit as tragic as the attacks on hotels (if not more tragic, given what they stand for), though since this is a travel blog, I’m focusing more on the hotels here. The Shangri-La, Kingsbury, and Cinnamon Grand, in Colombo, all experienced explosions today.

It appears that a majority of the 150+ person death toll comes from explosions at churches rather than hotels, though there are also casualties at hotels.

I’m seeing the following videos of the Shangri-La, for example:

Stay away from public places in Colombo or anywhere in #SriLanka the country is under attack. Pass to your friends pic.twitter.com/AQGXz12DSa

— Yasiru (@YRanaraja) April 21, 2019

The aftermath of the bombing at the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka.pic.twitter.com/PzpVDNZoX0

— Aldin 🇧🇦 (@aldin_aba) April 21, 2019

Then here are some pictures of the Kingsbury:

Same goes for explosion in The Kingsbury hotel, also in the restaurant. pic.twitter.com/4PLsgSZBzn

— Aldin 🇧🇦 (@aldin_aba) April 21, 2019

I won’t even share the pictures I’m seeing online of the churches, which make my stomach turn (like seeing statues with blood splattered all over them).

I had the chance to spend a week in Sri Lanka earlier this year, and had an incredible time. For that matter I’ve been to Colombo several times, and even stayed at the Shangri-La last year, and found it to be a great hotel. It was brand new at the time, and everyone working there was incredibly kind and proud, as it was the new flagship hotel of the city.

What a sad turn of events all of this is, given the trajectory Sri Lanka was on. The country is trying to greatly increase tourism, and was even about to relax visa requirements for visitors.

I remember the first time I visited Sri Lanka about a decade ago, right towards the end of their civil war. As it impacts aviation, there was a period where many airlines stopped flying to Colombo, as there were rebels trying to shoot down planes.

The country has come a long way in the past decade, so to see something like this again just makes me sick.

My thoughts and prayers are with those impacted (and the entire country, for that matter). If you have any travel planned to & from Sri Lanka, you may want to reconsider for now…

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Creditian Guest

April 22, 2019, 7:44 pm

It had been confirmed by Sri Lankan government that the terror attack was conducted by a Mus1im group, National Thowheed Jamath. Political correctness can't change the facts.

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derek Diamond

April 22, 2019, 12:08 am

Who did this? Tamil Tigers? al Qaeda? ISIS?

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Indopithecus Guest

April 21, 2019, 10:18 pm

As someone of Sri Lankan origin, I sincerely thank you Ben and all the others for the kind thoughts. This atrocity does not make sense. There was minor tension between extremist Buddhists (a tiny minority) and some Muslims who were seen as getting increasingly radicalized in the madrassas fuelled by Saudi money. Sri Lankan Muslims are mostly the thoroughly relaxed sort but over the last few years I have seen them getting increasingly reserved. Where Muslim women used to wear shorts (most do, even today) there is an increasing number wearing hijabs and burqas in public. And many men now wear white robes and are far more ascetic and religious. This is not unlike Muslim populations in the West that are increasingly conservative. But were Muslim extremists responsible for the coordinated attacks? This resembles an attack in Pakistan some time ago when extremists bombed several churches on Easter Sunday. The coordination also points to an al-Qaeda type organization. Three Muslim men have been arrested as far as I know and I saw on TV two women being led away from their residence. But who knows why? Semblance aside, it does not make sense. Why attack Catholic churches and 5-star hotels when their argument in Sri Lanka was with Buddhist radicals? The Catholics had no dogs in that fight. It is possible that these may be resurgent Tamil Tigers who accumulated a lot of money overseas during their reign of terror. But they never attacked Christian sites and coordinated attacks were not their style. There was recent bust of Sri Lankan drug kingpins in the UAE and all were deported to Sri Lanka and jailed. Was this payback? Very doubtful. Anyway, these terrorists will be brought to book. And I hope tourists do not give up on the island. This kind of madness can happen anywhere in the world these days. The West has been pressuring Sri Lanka to relax security measures and it did. This shows that you need to be always vigilant.

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Creditian Guest

April 21, 2019, 6:57 pm

A lot of com-ments had been cen-sor-ed (re-mov-ed). What a sp-ee-ch free-dom coun-try.

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Kalboz Member

April 21, 2019, 3:59 pm

Happy Easter/Pesach to all & thoughts and prayers to the people of Sri Lanka! Unacceptable atrocity designed to divide good people of all faiths.

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