Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church scrapped plans to resume Sunday services following a “specific threat” against two religious locations after the deadly Easter attacks.
The archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, said on Thursday (May 2) that a “reliable foreign source” had alerted him to possible attacks this weekend.
“The information we have from a reliable foreign source is that attackers are planning to hit a very famous church and a Catholic institution,” the Cardinal said in a statement. He did not name the source.
He also said that Catholic schools which were due to reopen after an extended Easter vacation on Monday would now remain shut “until further notice”.
Sri Lankan authorities had advance warnings from Indian intelligence of the impending Easter attacks in which 257 people died, but police and security forces ignored them.