09:33

This from the Guardian’s South Asia correspondent, who is in Negombo, Sri Lanka.

The Easter Sunday attacks that killed more than 320 people in Sri Lanka were a response to the mass shooting at a mosque in Christchurch in March, Sri Lanka’s minister of state for defence has told the country’s parliament.



Ruwan Wijewardene told a special sitting of the national body on Tuesday afternoon that investigations had shown “this attack was carried out in retaliation for the attack against Muslims in Christchurch”, he said. The minister presented no evidence for the claim.

An intelligence memo circulated to some in government in the weeks before the attack noted that one member of the terrorist group identified as having perpetrated the bombings had started to update his social media accounts “with extremist content” in the aftermath of the shootings by a rightwing-extremist in New Zealand who killed 50 people.



But terrorism researchers have said the sophisticated nature of the attack and the equipment used would likely have required months of preparation, including conditioning the suicide bombers and testing the explosives.

Wijewardene also told parliament that the death toll had climbed to 321 people including 38 foreigners, and reiterated that the prime minister and other key officials were never told about the possibility of an impending attack.

michael safi (@safimichael) Christchurch was mentioned in the confidential briefing note passed around to some in the Sri Lankan government. One suspect had started updating his SM accounts "with extremist content" in aftermath of the shootings https://t.co/7Mi7Nq4uMm