Sri Lankan police discover bombers' safe house, seize car that carried explosives

Colombo, Apr 22: Sri Lanka police on Monday said that the van which had carried explosives to carry out bomb attacks at the three hotels had been arrested with its driver.

A safe house where the bombers had lived for nearly three months leading to the attacks were discovered in the south of Colombo suburb of Panadura.

The death toll from the Easter Sunday explosions in Sri Lanka as risen to 290 with almost 500 people wounded, a police spokesperson said on Monday.

The authorities have so far arrested 24 people from the minority Muslim community in connection with the multiple blasts that rocked the island nation.

The police added that the investigation into the bombings will examine reports that the intelligence community failed to detect or warn of possible suicide attacks before the violence.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe urged people to be united and coordinate with the security forces in their investigation into the Easter Sunday attacks that killed 290 people and injured hundreds more.

He also asked people to refrain from spreading fake news and misinformation as that would "divert" the time and efforts of the security forces "from bringing the perpetrators of the crime to justice".