Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry has confirmed there are 25 unidentified bodies “believed to be of foreigners”. 

It comes after five Brits were confirmed to have been killed in horrific coordinated suicide bombings across Sri Lanka yesterday. 

At least 290 people were killed and 500 injured in a series of eight explosions targeting churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

24 people have been arrested, and the defence minister Ruwan Wijewardene said the culprits were religious extremists, but no group has yet claimed responsibility.

The prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, said security services had been “aware of information” of a possible attack up to 10 days ago, and said the government “must look into why adequate precautions were not taken”.

Six nearly simultaneous explosions at churches and hotels killed scores of people in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa today.

Hours later, two more explosions occurred – a blast at a guesthouse in Dehiwala killed two and an eighth incident occurred in Dematagoda on the outskirts of Colombo.

In Colombo, St Anthony’s Shrine and the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels were targeted.

Other blasts were reported at St Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, a majority Catholic town north of Colombo, and at Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa.

One hotel manager has described how a bomber had checked into the Cinnamon Grand in Colombo under a false name, waited in a queue for a breakfast buffet and then blew himself up.

Most of the dead are believed to have been Sri Lankans, but roughly 37 foreign citizen have been confirmed killed, including five Britons, three Indians and one Japanese citizen, and others.

The government has shut down social media and messaging services to prevent the spread of misinformation.

Defence minister Wijewardene said suicide bombers were responsible for the majority of the bombings

World leaders including Narendra Modi, Imran Khan, Jacinda Ardern, Theresa May, Donald Tusk, Jean-Claude Juncker and Vladimir Putin condemned the attacks.

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