One of the Sri Lanka bombers studied in the UK and Australia before carrying out the bombings, which may have been funded and inspired by Isis, the defence minister has said.

“We believe that one of the suicide bombers studied in the UK and later did his postgraduate [studies] in Australia before coming back and settling in Sri Lanka,” said Ruwan Wijewardene, the state minister for defence, at a media briefing on Wednesday afternoon.

Wijewardene confirmed that many of the bombers had international connections, having lived or studied abroad.

“This group of suicide bombers, most of them are well-educated and come from middle or upper-middle class, so they are financially quite independent and their families are quite stable financially, that is a worrying factor in this,” he said. “Some of them have I think studied in various other countries, they hold degrees, LLMs [law degrees], they’re quite well-educated people.”

On Wednesday, the death toll from the attacks that tore apart several churches and hotels in cities around Sri Lanka has risen to 359, with 500 injured.

Eighteen suspects were arrested overnight, bringing the total number detained to 58, said police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara, but Sri Lanka’s prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, warned that several suspects armed with explosives were still loose. Up to nine people directly linked to the attack could still be at large, according to sources involved in the investigation.

Wijewardene said the investigation was continuing and authorities expected to make further arrests in the coming days.

“We can firmly say in the next couple of days our security agencies will have the situation of this country firmly under control,” he said.

It came as Sri Lanka’s president called for a massive security overhaul amid warnings that several suspects armed with explosives could still be at large. Read more

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