Not 359, Sri Lanka reveals actual death toll of suicide bomb attacks

The series of bomb blasts in Sri Lanka that happened on Easter Sunday including 3 churches and 3 hotels shocked the entire world. The death toll was reported as 359, but the official toll released by the police was reduced by 106 after the reconciliation of autopsy and DNA reports.

Sri Lankan authorities on Thursday revised the toll from Easter bombings down to 253, from the previous figure of 359, explaining that some of the badly mutilated bodies had been double-counted, reported Deccan Chronicle.

The health ministry said that by late Thursday the medical examiners had completed all autopsies and had concluded that serveral victims killed had been counted more than once. “Many of the victims were badly mutilated ... There was double counting,” the ministry said. The ministry did not report on the new death toll of foreign victims.

Despite the toll revision, the series of blasts remain the worst ever since the civil war that ended a decade ago. The ministry said that 485 people were initially hospitalized, but as of Thursday evening, only 149 remained in the hospital with the others being discharged after treatment.