Devastated Aussie dad farewells wife and daughter killed in Sri Lanka bombing
An Australian father has laid his wife and young daughter to rest in the wake of the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka.
Sudesh Kolonne arrived with dozens of mourners at the funeral for his wife, Manik Suriyaaratchi, and their 10-year-old daughter Alexendria, which was held in Colombo on Tuesday (local time).
There was a heightened security presence in the wake of the attacks, with mourners kept from going inside the church, 7News reported.
Services were instead held outside under permanent and temporary verandahs.
“She was a beautiful daughter, she loved Australia,” Mr Kolonne told 7News at the service.
Mr Kolonne had briefly left the church after mass to get the family car on Sunday when the bomb ripped through the church in Negombo.
Alexendria was born in Melbourne and the family lived in the city's southeast, but had returned to Sri Lanka in recent years.
The father described to ABC News the horrifying moment he found the lifeless bodies of his family in the church.
"There was a bomb blast, I heard a huge noise and I jump into the church and I saw that my daughter and my wife was on the floor," he said.
"I don't know what to do. And I... just saw my daughter on the floor and I tried to lift her up, she's already dead, exactly the same next, my wife is dead.”
The death toll has since risen to 321, while hundreds more were injured in the near-simultaneous blasts which have shocked the nation.
The suicide bombers hit Colombo luxury hotels popular with foreign tourists – the Cinnamon Grand, the Shangri-La and the Kingsbury – and churches, two in the Colombo region and one in the eastern city of Batticaloa.
The carnage, which also left some 500 people injured, was the worst atrocity since the south Asian country's civil war ended a decade ago.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks, according to the extremist group’s unofficial channel.
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