Sri Lankans returned to streets on Monday that were emptied by an overnight curfew, a day after Easter bombings that killed nearly 300 people and injured 500.

Investigators have arrested two dozen people as questions were raised about why the authorities did not take stronger action after a police official warned the security authorities 10 days before the attacks about the possibility of violence against churches.

The scenes of blood-splattered churches and blown-up hotels rekindled painful memories of Sri Lanka’s quarter-century of civil war and long history of sectarian violence.

Here are images from the devastation of the Sunday attacks and glimpses of how the country is beginning to mourn the dead.

Sunday

After the coordinated bombings that killed at least 290 people on Sunday, images of the Roman Catholic churches that had been targeted showed smashed pews, broken statues and charred beams. Windows, floors and ceilings were blown out at the hotels that were hit.

Witnesses described scenes of terror and carnage. N. A. Sumanapala, a shopkeeper who works near one of the churches that was struck, St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo, said: “It was a river of blood. Ash was falling like snow.”

[Follow our live updates on the deadly Sri Lanka explosions.]

A guest at the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo, Sarita Marlou, wrote in a Facebook post that the bomb there had been set off in a third-floor restaurant.

“Felt the blast all the way up to the 17th floor where we were sleeping,” she wrote. “Few minutes later, we were asked to evacuate the hotel. While running down the stairs, saw a lot of blood on the floor but we were still clueless as to what really happened.”

Pope Francis, after celebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City, said the attacks in Sri Lanka had “brought mourning and sorrow” to an important Christian holiday.

“I want to express my affectionate closeness to the Christian community, struck while it was gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence,” he said.

Police officials in Sri Lanka said the attacks had been coordinated by a single group, though they did not identify it. The Colombo attacks were said to have been carried out by suicide bombers.

Among the nearly 300 killed and hundreds more wounded, the authorities said, were 35 foreigners, according to officials and news accounts. American, British, Chinese, Dutch, Indian, Portuguese and Turkish citizens were said to be among the victims.

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