The first blast was reported at St Anthony's Shrine, a well-known Catholic church in the capital Colombo. A second deadly explosion was then confirmed at St Sebastian's, a church in the town of Negombo, north of the capital. Soon after, police confirmed that a third church in the town of Batticaloa had been hit, along with three high-end hotels in the capital - The Shangrila, the Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury
Police reported the seventh explosion, the fourth at a hotel near the national zoo, which is in an area near the State capital Colombo.
The eighth explosion hit the suburb of Orugodawatta in the north of the capital, but there are no further details on what was targeted.
Priests walk into the St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade church in Colombo after an explosion hit the church. Two other churches were targeted outside Colombo.
Sri Lankan police stand at the site of an explosion at the luxury Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo. Other two hotels hit are the Kingsbury Hotel and Cinnamon Grand Colombo.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks in a country which was at war for decades with LTTE until 2009 during which bomb blasts in the capital were common.
Last year, there were 86 verified incidents of discrimination, threats and violence against Christians, according to the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL), which represents more than 200 churches and other Christian organisations.
In its 2018 report on Sri Lanka's human rights, the U.S. State Department noted that some Christian groups and churches reported they had been pressured to end worship activities after authorities classified them as “unauthorized gatherings.” Here Ambulances are seen outside the St. Anthony's Shrine in Kochchikade.
Photos circulating on social media showed the roof of one of the churches had been almost blown off in the blast. The floor was littered with a mixture of roof tiles, splintered wood and blood.