Sri Lanka blasts: Suicide bomber pats a little girl before blowing himself up

Colombo, Apr 24: The chilling CCTV footage of one of the seven suicide bombers in Sri Lanka patting a young girl's head seconds before he enters a crowded church where a powerful blast killed nearly 100 worshippers on Easter Sunday emerged on Tuesday.

A local Sri Lankan channel aired a CCTV footage which shows one of the alleged suicide bombers entering the St Sebastian Church in Negombo, moments before he blew himself during the Easter Sunday mass.

The video footage shows the bearded man, wearing a large, heavy backpack, placing his hand on the child, who is with an adult, as they almost bump into each other outside the St Sebastian's Catholic church in Negombo on Sri Lanka's west coast.

The suspect then calmly walks in through a side door, passing dozens who chose to stand outside during the Sunday mass and steps between pews packed with worshippers.

The service was already underway when the terrorist blew himself up.

The footage obtained by Sri Lankan media ends one frame before the suspect detonates his device inside the packed church.

ISIS terror group on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the bombings of three churches and posh hotels, Sri Lanka's worst terror attack, that killed 321 people.

Amaq also released a photo of eight men it said were behind the blasts. Seven of them had their faces covered and three of them held knives. The one man who displayed his bearded face also appeared to be carrying an assault rifle.

Amaq later released a video of the eight fighters pledging allegiance to IS supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Arabic, a black IS flag hanging in the background.

The authenticity of the image and video could not be independently verified and the reason for the discrepancy in the reported number of attackers was not immediately clear.