Sri Lanka to declare emergency from midnight after Easter day blasts that killed 290

The government has decided to gazette the clauses related to prevention of terrorism to emergency regulation and gazette it by midnight, Sri Lanka president’s media unit said in a statement.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena will declare a nationwide emergency from midnight on Monday following Easter Sunday suicide bomb blasts at churches and luxury hotels that killed 290 people and wounded more than 500, his office said.

TOPSHOT - Sri Lankan security personnel walk through debris following an explosion in St Sebastian's Church in Negombo, north of the capital Colombo, on April 21, 2019. (AFP)

“The government has decided to gazette the clauses related to prevention of terrorism to emergency regulation and gazette it by midnight,” the president’s media unit said in a statement.

It said the measure would be confined to dealing with terrorism and would not impinge on freedom of expression.

Earlier, Sri Lanka cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said the bombings were carried out with the help of an international network.

The Easter Sunday bomb attacks in Sri Lanka were carried out with the help of an international network, cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said.

“We do not believe these attacks were carried out by a group of people who were confined to this country,” Senaratne said. “There was an international network without which these attacks could not have succeeded.”