UPDATE: 156 reported dead in Sri Lanka church, hotel blasts

The toll in a string of blasts targeting hotels and churches in Sri Lanka on Sunday has risen to 156, including 35 foreigners, a police official told AFP.

A hospital source said Americans, British and Dutch citizens were among those killed in the six blasts, which also injured hundreds of people.

The explosions hit three high-end hotels in the capital, where a church was also targeted.

Two additional churches were hit, one near Colombo and the other in the east of the country, police said.

At least one of the victims was killed in Colombo’s Cinnamon Grand Hotel, near the prime minister’s official residence, where the blast ripped through a restaurant, a hotel official told AFP.

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The death toll in a string of blasts targeting hotels and churches in Sri Lanka on Sunday has risen to 137, including nine foreigners, a police official told AFP, when a string of blasts ripped through high-end hotels and churches as worshippers attended Easter services.

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Source: eNCA