Actual death toll 253 not 359: DG health services

Director General of Health Services Specialist Dr. Anil Jasinghe issuing a statement said the number of persons who had lost their lives in the Easter Sunday bomb blasts is 253 and not 359 as stated by several sources.

Initially, the death toll was estimated at 290 by the health sector but it has now been confirmed that approximately 253 persons had died.

The statement states further that there were more than 485 injured in the Easter Sunday bomb blasts who had been admitted to the National Hospital, Colombo South Teaching Hospital, Colombo North Teaching Hospital, Lady Ridgeway Hospital, Batticaloa Teaching Hospital and the Negombo Base Hospital, these numbers had decreased to 149 by 10.00 a.m yesterday (25).

Of the 485 injured persons admitted to these hospitals, only 6 have died. This is something for the Sri Lankan health services to boast about. This feat even been praised by foreign media.

On Monday (22) it was announced that more than 280 persons had died in the bomb blasts. This consisted of 26 deaths at the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital, 102 at the Negombo Base Hospital, 7 at the Colombo North Teaching Hospital, 3 at the Colombo South Teaching Hospital in Kalubowila and 140 from the Colombo Judicial Morgue.

In similar situations of persons being killed as a result of bomb blasts, the victims suffer mutilation and body-parts are strewn all over the place where the incident takes place, thereby making it difficult to identify the bodies as complete bodies. Accordingly, it is extremely difficult to state accurately the number of deaths. Therefore, the death toll was declared every day to the nearest digit, Dr. Jasinghe said.