Key intelligence on a possible terrorist attack was not passed onto the Sri Lankan government weeks before at least 290 people were killed in a wave of Easter Sunday suicide bombings on churches and five-star hotels.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe acknowledged late on Sunday that “information was there” about possible attacks, adding that “we must also look into why adequate precautions were not taken.”

It was reported that information about potential suicide attacks had been passed by “foreign intelligence” to the Sri Lankan security agencies ten days earlier.

The horrific death toll, which has risen dramatically overnight, was given on Monday morning by a police spokesman, who said a further 500 people had been wounded.

The Sri Lankan High Commissioner to the UK, Manisha Gunasekera, said eight British nationals were killed in the attacks, up from five previously thought.

"As of now I think there is information on eight nationals who have lost their lives and the other numbers are of other nationals," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Members of a British family were killed while eating breakfast when six coordinated morning blasts targeted foreign and local guests at three hotels in the capital, Colombo, and Christians worshipping in three high profile churches across the country.

Alex Nicholson, 11, and his mother, Anita, 42, were killed while dining at the second-floor restaurant in the Shangri La hotel. The schoolboy’s father, Ben, survived, while The Telegraph was unable to account for the whereabouts of the couple’s youngest daughter.