Did Sri Lanka ignore police chief's warning 10 days before blasts?

Police chief Pujuth Jayasundara sent an intelligence warning to top officers on April 11 making a nationwide alert for the threat. "A foreign intelligence agency has reported that the NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama'ath) is planning to carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches as well as the Indian high commission in Colombo," said the alert as reported by a major news agency.

The NTJ is a radical Muslim group in Sri Lanka that came to notice last year when it was linked to the vandalization of Buddhist statues.

Hospital sources said that more than 140 have been killed in the blasts. "45 people died in Colombo where three hotels and a church were hit, while 68 were killed in Negombo and 27 in Batticaloa," they said.

Foreigners and locals who were injured in hotel blasts were admitted to the Colombo General Hospital. Harsha de Silva, Sri Lanka's Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution, said that there have been "casualties including foreigners."

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 a.m. (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.

The Sri Lankan government has now summoned an emergency meeting called. All necessary emergency steps have been taken by the government, a minister said, adding that an official statement will be issued soon.

(With inputs from agencies.)