Sydney, Australia – The leaders of Australia and New Zealand condemned the explosive attacks on several churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing more than 200 people and wounding about 450, including an Australian.
“The nature of this horrible attack on innocent lives on the most sacred day of the Christian calendar is absolutely devastating,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a video posted on his Twitter account last night.
Morrison expressed his condolences to the “community of Sri Lanka in Australia and the beautiful people of Sri Lanka” and lamented that this as yet unchallenged attack has claimed “once again innocent lives”, while offering the help of his country ” in this terrible moment of need. “
The Australian Foreign Ministry confirmed today in a statement that an Australian was wounded in the attack and so far has no information of the death of any of its citizens.
“There are many Australians who travel regularly to Sri Lanka and our mission in Colombo will ensure the safety of those Australians,” Morrison said in the video.
The day before, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, said that her country “rejects all forms of extremism and defends the freedom of worship and the right to express it in a safe manner, collectively we must find answers to these acts of violence.”
“New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism and our resolution has been strengthened by the attack perpetrated on our territory on March 15. Seeing an attack in Sri Lanka while people were inside the churches and against hotels is devastating,” said Ardern, whose country was the scene of a supremacist attack on two mosques, which killed 50 people.