LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI/AFP/Getty Images
- Sri Lanka has banned drones and is conducting searches across the city after bombings killed almost 360 people on Sunday.
- Soldiers are stopping and searching people and vehicles, put a curfew in place, and is detonating suspicious items across the capital city.
- Sri Lanka said it was banning drones and unmanned aircraft because of the "existing security situation in the country."
- Almost 60 people have been detained and authorities are blaming a local terror group for the blasts that ripped through churches and hotels on Easter Sunday.
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Sri Lanka has banned drones and is detonating suspicious items around its capital city in the aftermath of a series of deadly bombings on Easter Sunday that killed at least 359 people.
In a statement, Sri Lanka’s civil aviation authority said it was banning drones and unmanned aircraft because of the "existing security situation in the country," The Associated Press reported. The ban will remain in place until further notice, Sri Lankan authorities said.
Investigators were searching for other possible explosive devices and stopping to search people and vehicles in Colombo on Thursday, AP reported, four days after blasts ripped through hotels and churches across Sri Lanka.
Few people were outside in parts of the city while authorities searched locations near where the bombs went off, according to the AP. Sri Lanka has also imposed a curfew, from 10 p.m. until 4 a.m. local time.
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Drones carrying explosives have previously been used by militant groups such as ISIS, which has claimed responsibility for the Sri Lankan attacks.
But ISIS’ links to the attacks have not been proven, and authorities have blamed National Towheed Jamaat, a local extremist group that has not taken public responsibility. A high-level intelligence official told CNN that the group was planning another round of attacks in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan authorities said they believe an international network of extremists could have helped the group carry out the attacks.
Associated Press
Almost 60 people have been detained in relation to the bombings, while two brothers who are believed to have been involved in the bombings, Imsath Ahmed Ibrahim and Ilham Ahmed Ibrahim, were members of one of the city’s wealthiest families.
Sri Lanka’s deputy defence minister said on Wednesday that the country believes one of the bombers studied in the UK and Australia.
Read more coverage of the Sri Lanka bombings:
- Video shows backpack-wearing Sri Lanka suicide bombing suspect walking into Easter church service seconds before a blast killed 110 people
- An Islamic extremist group has been linked to Sri Lanka’s Easter attack, and it’s a symptom of rising extremism across the country
- People around the world are honoring the victims of the Sri Lanka bombings that killed more than 300 people
- Harrowing photos show devastating aftermath of Sri Lanka Easter bombing attacks that claimed hundreds of lives
- Sri Lanka’s Easter bombings brought unwelcome memories — here’s a look at the country’s troubled recent history of war and violence
- Billionaire fashion CEO Anders Holch Povlsen says 3 of his 4 children died in the Sri Lanka bombings
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See Also:
- At least 2 Americans died in the Sri Lanka Easter Sunday bombings that claimed hundreds of lives
- Harrowing photos show devastating aftermath of Sri Lanka Easter bombing attacks that claimed hundreds of lives
- Here’s everything we know about National Thowfeek Jamaath, the terror group Sri Lanka has blamed for the Easter bombings that killed nearly 300 people
Source: Business Insider – sbaker@businessinsider.com (Sinéad Baker)