{"id":87359,"date":"2019-04-21T15:12:55","date_gmt":"2019-04-21T22:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=87359"},"modified":"2019-04-21T15:12:55","modified_gmt":"2019-04-21T22:12:55","slug":"buffet-bomber-terrorist-waited-in-line-for-breakfast-and-then-set-off-bomb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/04\/21\/buffet-bomber-terrorist-waited-in-line-for-breakfast-and-then-set-off-bomb\/","title":{"rendered":"Buffet bomber: Terrorist waited in line for breakfast and then set off bomb"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy NZHerald<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>One of the Sri Lanka terrorist bombers checked into a five-star hotel, waited in a queue for a breakfast buffet and then blew himself up, it has emerged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A manager at the Cinnamon Grand hotel in Colombo said the attacker had set off the horrific explosion in a packed restaurant at 8.30am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bomber had checked in under a false address, claiming he was in the city on business, before unleashing terror on one of the hotel&#8217;s busiest days of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At least 207 people have died in the eight Easter Sunday blasts, including Brits, Americans and Dutch nationals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/resizer\/G7BPGAdi8muOEeI2WFKyg_Tgl2E=\/620x414\/smart\/filters:quality(70)\/arc-anglerfish-syd-prod-nzme.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/4YRU3WZEVJHCHBOXNCRQ4LTMCI.jpg\" alt=\"Security forces inspect the scene after a blast targeting The Kingsbury hotel in Colombo. It was one of three hotels targetted in the co-ordinated attacks. Photo \/ AP\"\/><figcaption>Security forces inspect the scene after a blast targeting The Kingsbury hotel in Colombo. It was one of three hotels targetted in the co-ordinated attacks. Photo \/ AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The bombings targeted hotels such as the Cinnamon Grand which are popular with foreign visitors, as well as St Anthony&#8217;s Shrine in Colombo, also frequented by tourists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other blasts were reported at St. Sebastian&#8217;s Church in Negombo, a majority-Catholic town, and at Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticalo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Describing the Cinnamon Grand bombing, the manager said the attacker had registered the night before as Mohamed Azzam Mohamed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bomber was just about to be served when he set off the explosives which were strapped to his back, killing himself and numerous guests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The manager said: &#8216;There was utter chaos. It was 8.30 am and it was busy. It was families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;He came up to the top of the queue and set off the blast. One of our managers who was welcoming guests was among those killed instantly.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy NZHerald One of the Sri Lanka terrorist bombers checked into a five-star hotel, waited in a queue for a breakfast buffet and then blew himself up, it has emerged. A manager at the Cinnamon Grand hotel in Colombo said the attacker had set off the horrific explosion in a packed restaurant at 8.30am. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}