Eight Britons have now been confirmed dead in the Sri Lanka terror attacks which killed at least 290 people and wounded about 500 others.

The death toll had stood at five until Sri Lankan High Commissioner to the UK, Manisha Gunasekera, said on Monday that eight British nationals were killed in the Easter Sunday attacks.

The bombings - one of the world's worst terror attacks since 9/11 - have been blamed on a local Muslim extremist group, and a nationwide emergency will go into effect from midnight. 

Ms Gunasekera told the BBC: "As of now I think there is information on eight nationals who have lost their lives and the other numbers are of other nationals."

Ms Gunasekera said the investigations were moving "very swiftly" but warned against taking a "linear view" on the motive of the attacks.

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She said: "This cuts across the ethnic and religious dimensions... it's very difficult to see who has been targeted.

"It appears as if the entirety of Sri Lanka has been targeted as well as the unity and coexistence that Sri Lankans have attempted so hard to safeguard over the years."

On Monday, an explosion went off in a van near St Anthony's - one of the churches targeted on Sunday - when bomb squad officials were trying to defuse it, and 87 bomb detonators were found at Colombo's main bus station.

Hampstead and Kilburn MP Tulip Siddiq said she had lost a relative in the attacks, and a mother and son - Anita Nicholson, 42, and her son Alex, 11 - were feared dead.

Three children of Anders Holch Povlsen, the Danish billionaire owner of Asos and the Bestseller clothing chain, and Britain's second-largest private landowner, were among those killed.

Dad-of-four Mr Povlsen, 46, and his family, who have a residence in Scotland, were in Sri Lanka for the Easter holiday.

Blood stains on a statue of Jesus Christ at St. Sebastian Catholic Church

Days before the attacks Mr Povlsen's daughter Alma shared an Instagram photo of her siblings Astrid, Agnes and Alfred in front of a pool lined by palm trees.

The billionaire and his wife Anne have not said which of their three children died in the attack.

Mr Povlsen, who reportedly has a net worth of £4.5bn, is Scotland's biggest individual private landowner.

Denmark's richest man, who owns the Bestseller clothing chain and is the biggest stakeholder in Asos.com, had recently told how he plans to restore the Scottish Highlands and leave all of his land to his kids when he dies.

Anders Holch Povlsen's daughter Alma shared a photo of her three siblings just days ago

Holidaymakers have been warned that "terrorist groups" are plotting more bomb attacks and possible targets include tourist sites, hotels, restaurants, airports and places of worship.

A Sri Lankan investigator confirmed the attacks on three churches and three hotels were carried out by seven suicide bombers.

Sri Lanka has blamed the Muslim extremist group National Thowheed Jamath, saying there were three warnings of a possible attack over the Easter holiday.

One warning reportedly came 10 minutes before the bombings began.


Billionaire businessman Anders Holch Povlsen and his wife Anne Storm Pedersen

The others targeted three churches and two other hotels.

A fourth hotel and a house in a suburb of the capital Colombo were also targeted, but it was not immediately known how the attacks were carried out.

The explosion at the house in the Colombo suburb occurred when security forces raided a house there on Sunday afternoon, several hours after the attack. Police reported an explosion at the house and said three officers were killed.

The attacks mainly took place during church services or at hotel breakfast buffets.

"Guests who had come for breakfast were lying on the floor, blood all over," an employee at Kingsbury Hotel, one of those targeted, told Reuters.

Relatives of blast victims weep outside a police mortuary

"We just picked up everyone, dead or alive and evacuated them."

At the Shangri-La hotel, an Australian survivor, identified only as Sam, told Australia's 3AW radio the hotel was a scene of "absolute carnage".




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Dozens were killed in one of the blasts at the Gothic-style St. Sebastian church in Katuwapitiya, north of Colombo.

Dilip Fernando told of the chilling moment one of the suicide bombers entered the church with a heavy bag and touched his granddaughter's head as he walked by.

Mr Fernando, 66, narrowly avoided the deadly blast after deciding to go elsewhere for mass because it was so crowded.

Hundreds of people were killed or injured in the explosions

The explosion ripped through the church shortly after they left.

He told AFP that seven of his extended family, including in-laws and his two granddaughters, decided to stay, sitting outside because the church was so crowded.

Mr Fernando said: "At the end of the mass they saw one young man go into the church in with a heavy bag.

"He touched my granddaughter's head on the way past. It was the bomber."

Four of the bombs went off at roughly the same time, at 8.45 am local time, with two others coming within 20 minutes.

The explosions at the fourth hotel and the house were in the afternoon.

Security personnel inspect the interior of St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo

Sri Lankans accounted for the bulk of the dead and wounded although government officials said 32 foreigners were killed, including British, American, Turkish, Indian, Chinese, Danish, Dutch and Portuguese nationals.

Police said on Monday 24 people had been arrested, all of whom were Sri Lankan.

The Sri Lankan military, who were clearing the route from Colombo airport late on Sunday, found a crude bomb near the departure gate, an air force spokesman said.

They destroyed the device in a controlled explosion.

There were fears the attacks could spark a renewal of communal violence, with police also reporting late on Sunday there had been a petrol bomb attack on a mosque in the northwest and arson attacks on two shops owned by Muslims in the west.

Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka was at war for decades with ethnic minority Tamil separatists but violence had largely ended since the government victory in the civil war, 10 years ago.

Sri Lanka's 22 million people include Christian, Muslim and Hindu minority populations.