176 children lost their parents in easter attacks, says head of Sri Lanka's catholic church

Colombo: A total of 176 children have lost either one or both of their parents during the Easter Sunday attacks that killed 258 people, a media report quoted the head of Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church as saying.

A total of seven suicide bombers carried out a series of blasts that targeted three churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on April 21. The attacks injured 500 people.

He made these comments on his visit to Rome last week. He said the church will not concentrate on the renovation of churches damaged in the blasts as the government has undertaken that task.

The blasts targeted St Anthony’s Church in Colombo, St Sebastian’s Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and another church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 am (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress.

The Lankan government announced that all the damaged churches will be completely repaired by the government.

He said that during his visit, he briefed Pope Francis about what happened and what the church was doing to rebuild the lives of those affected by the carnage. “I provided the Pope with DVDs on the Easter Sunday attacks”, the Cardinal said.