More than 200 people were are reported killed and hundreds injured in a coordinated series of bombing attacks on multiple churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Sunday. The attacks occurred as worshipers were celebrating the Easter holiday.
In Sri Lanka’s capital city, Colombo, attacks hit a church and three popular hotels. Two additional churches were attacked during Easter services outside the capital. According to police reports, several of the attacks occurred simultaneously. Another explosion occurred hours later near a hotel in Dehawali, which is south of Colombo, followed by another bomb moments later just north of the capital.
Sri Lanka isn’t accustomed to attacks on the scale of the coordinated bombings, which killed at least 190 people and wounded hundreds of others, said Amit Kabalana, an Israeli living in Sri Lanka.
“The hospitals are overloaded,” Kabalana told Israel Hayom.
Despite the horror of the bombings, Kabalana said Israelis shouldn’t be afraid to visit the country.
“I’ve been living here for two years, and I run a number of businesses,” he says. “There are a lot of tourists here now, and we’re lucky that it’s the end of the season, so it does less damage to tourism. The question is how it will affect the next tourist season.”
Although no organization had claimed responsibility for the bombings at the time Israel Hayom spoke to Kabalana, the expatriate is certain that the attackers were Muslim.
“There’s no chance they weren’t Muslims, according to what people here are saying. In the past few years, people have started disliking the Muslims, even though they aren’t refugees or immigrants, this is their home,“ said Kabalana. ”But the hatred toward them has increased recently, and this is apparently their way of causing shock.”
