Sri Lanka has revised down the death toll from last Sunday's wave of bombings by more than 100, to "about 253", the health ministry says.

It blamed a calculation error and the difficulty of identifying victims.

Scores were killed and hundreds injured when suicide bombers struck hotels and churches in Colombo, Negombo and the eastern city of Batticaloa.

Most of those killed were Sri Lankan but dozens of foreigners were also among the casualties.

Nine people are suspected of carrying out the attacks. Police have continued carrying out raids and have issued photographs of seven people wanted in connection with the attacks.

The authorities blamed a local Islamist extremist group, National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), soon after the blasts but say the bombers must have had outside help.

The Islamic State group said it was behind the attacks and published a video showing eight men but provided no evidence of direct involvement.

In other developments:

Sri Lanka's defence secretary, Hemasiri Fernando, the top non-elected official at the department, announced his resignation on Thursday in response to intelligence failures

Sri Lankan police apologised after mistakenly releasing a photo of US-based student activist Amara Majeed as one of the suspects

The country's Catholic Church has announced the suspension of all church services

Hundreds of refugee Pakistani Ahmadi Muslims, fearing revenge attacks, have been fleeing the city of Negombo, site of one of the blasts

Police say more than 70 people have now been arrested

The UK Foreign Office is now warning against all but essential travel to Sri Lanka

BBC
BDST: 0918 HRS, APR 26, 2019
RS