Video shows Sri Lanka bombing suspect pat a girl on the head just before he walks into church
Multiple CCTV clips have now emerged showing one of the Sri Lankan suicide bombers on his way to the church moments before he carried out the deadly attack on Easter Sunday. A shocking moment in one of the videos shows him stopping to touch a little girl on the head before continuing towards the church.
The deadly series of attack in Sri Lanka on Sunday left 321 people dead and more than 500 injured. The eight blasts were aimed at luxury hotels and churches and were reportedly meant to "avenge the Christchurch massacre" in New Zealand.
A day after one of the deadliest attacks in Sri Lanka, the Islamist terrorist group, the Islamic State, claimed responsibility for the bombings. White supremacist Brenton Tarrant allegedly killed 50 people as he opened fire in two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch on March 15. Tarrant even live-streamed the shooting on Facebook.
One CCTV clip shows the suicide bomber heading towards the St Sebastian's Church in Negombo, wearing a large backpack containing a "crude device made locally," which was detonated inside the church to kill Christian worshippers gathered for prayers.
According to the Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, at least 110 people died in the St Sebastian's blast, deemed the deadliest in the series of attacks on Sunday.
Another clip of the same bomber shows the bearded man wearing a t-shirt and pants sauntering in the church where people are still and praying with him in the background as the only moving person. The clip ends as he enters the church, right before the detonation.
The state minister of defence Ruwan Wijewardene, earlier on Tuesday, told the parliament that preliminary investigations suggested the co-ordinated blasts were "in retaliation for the attack against Muslims in Christchurch."
The clips of the bomber have emerged as ISIS released an image of all of the seven suicide bombers pictured together. ISIS's news agency Amaq posted a picture of the seven attackers on Twitter, claiming that they were named Abu Ubayda, Abu al-Mukhtar, Abu Khalil, Abu Hamza, Abu al-Bara'a, Abu Muhammad, and Abu Abdullah. The image shows them standing in front of an ISIS flag, wearing black robes and masks over their faces as they carry knives in their hands.