On Easter Sunday, Sri Lanka was rocked by a series of terror attacks, which have left an estimated 253 people dead.

The number was reported as being closer to 350 at one point, with authorities struggling to identify the bodies of victims killed in the attack, some of which were completely destroyed or broken into parts.

As investigators continue to piece together what happened, widely shared footage has shown one of the suspected suicide bombers walking the streets before entering St Sebastian’s church in Negombo.

The bomb went off at around 8:45AM, with some estimating that close to 100 people were killed in that particular blast. Here’s the footage showing the bomber:

The latest from the Washington Post:

The suspected leader of the militant group Sri Lankan authorities said carried out a series of Easter Sunday bombings died in the blast at the Shangri-La hotel, one of six hotels and churches targeted in the attacks that killed at least 250 people, officials said Friday…

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena told reporters in Colombo that some 140 people in the island nation had been identified as having links to the Islamic State group, and that the Sri Lankan government has “the capability “to completely control ISIS activities” in the country…

Sirisena blamed Sri Lanka’s defense secretary, who resigned Thursday, and police chief, who he said would soon step down, for a failure to share weeks of information from international intelligence agencies about the plot ahead of time…

Authorities told Muslims to pray at home rather than attend communal Friday prayers that are the most important of the week.

Sri Lankan Muslims have faced an angry backlash since the attacks, as reported by the New York Times:

In the town of Negombo, where an attack on a church during Easter services killed more than 100 people, gangs of Christian men moved from house to house, smashing windows, breaking down doors, dragging people into the streets, punching them in the face and then threatening to kill them, dozens of residents said. No deaths were reported, but many Muslims fear it is only a matter of time.

If one of the bombers’ goals in slaughtering hundreds of innocent men, women and children at hotels and churches on Easter Sunday was to stir new religious hatred in Sri Lanka, that may now be happening in some areas.

You can read that full report here.

[sources:washpost&nytimes]