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UPDATE: Seven arrested as Sri Lanka bombings death toll passes 200

UPDATE: Seven arrested as Sri Lanka bombings death toll passes 200

By REUTERS

Sri Lankan army soldiers secure the area around St Anthony's Shrine after a blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, April 21, 2019. Photo: AP

COLOMBO: Seven people were arrested and three police officers were killed during a raid on a house in Colombo on Sunday as the death toll from a rash of bombings at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka rose past 200, police and local media said. 'Altogether we have information of 207 dead from all hospitals. According to the information as of now, we have 450 injured people admitted to hospitals,' Police Spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera told reporters in Colombo. Further details of the raid on the house in the Sri Lankan capital were not immediately available. The eight explosions, some of which officials said were suicide bomb attacks, led to an immediate clampdown, with the government declaring a curfew and blocking access to major social media and messaging sites, including Facebook and WhatsApp.