Blast in Sri Lankan town Pugoda, no casualties

An explosion took place on Thursday in a city east of the capital of Sri Lanka, Colombo, but there were no casualties, a spokesman for the police said. Speaker Ruwan Gunasekera said police were investigating the blast of 40 km behind the court of the magistrate on empty land in Pagoda.

Behind the court there was an explosion, we are investigating, he said, adding that in recent days, like other blasts, it was not a controlled explosion. The blast came at a time of high tension in Sri Lanka following the suicide bombing of the island state on Easter Sunday that killed 359 people and wounded about 500 people.

The Islamic State group has assumed responsibility and released images that claimed to show the seven bombers who blew up at three churches and three hotels on Sunday in the worst violence this South Asian island nation has witnessed since its civil war ended ten years ago.

The government said the attacks were carried out by Islamic fundamentalists in apparent retaliation last month for the massacre of the New Zealand mosque, but the seven bombers were all Sri Lankan. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said researchers are still working to determine the extent of foreign links between the bombers.

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said 18 suspects were arrested overnight, increasing the total number of suspects detained to 58. On Tuesday, the prime minister warned that there were still several suspects armed with explosives on the ground.