Los Angeles Times

Americans among 200 killed in Easter Sunday explosions in Sri Lanka

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - A mother and daughter, wearing their Sunday best, rode in a taxi to Easter Mass on Sunday morning at St. Anthony's Shrine, a stately gray Catholic church near the heart of Sri Lanka's capital. Their driver, P. Ranasinghe, was parked a few feet away having tea when a thunderous blast shook the 19th century church.

The next thing he heard were the anguished screams of worshipers racing out of the colonnaded doorways as black smoke poured from the church. Ranasinghe remembered seeing red - the bloodstains spread across the clothing of the congregants, most of them women, as they fled.

His two passengers survived; they were among the fortunate.

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