Christchurch: International Cricket Council (ICC) anti-corruption official Steve Richardson recalled the horrific Sri Lanka Easter bombings that rocked the island country on this day last year. On Easter Sunday, nine suicide bombers detonated their respective devices at six locations — three explosions at packed churches while three blasts at luxury hotels across Colombo.
Richardson, who was present at one of the hotels on the fateful day, reflected on the unfortunate incident that left 250 dead and many more injured. Richardson revealed he was having breakfast when the explosion took place in the basement of the hotel and then chaos followed.
“I got up to get some food and was walking back to the table when there was a massive explosion. It shook the building,” Richardson told stuff.co.nz. “The explosion was right below us and I looked out the window and I could see the swimming pool attendant was getting up holding his ears.”
“One thing we were concerned about was that the explosion was so big it might bring the building down. You hope the building will stay structurally safe, but my mind went back to 9/11.”
Richardson also revealed he spoke with his head office in Dubai, looking for answers as to what was happening and that is when he got to know about multiple terrorist attacks across the country.
“About 10 minutes later I messaged my office in Dubai. They started monitoring the news and quickly told us there were incidents at churches in Colombo,” Richardson said.
“I saw on social media there had been an explosion at the Shangri-La Hotel, which is where the England team stay on tours to Sri Lanka. It was obvious it was coordinated terrorist attacks.”