this is bbc news, i'm julian worricker. the headlines at 8pm. more than 200 people have died after a series of explosions at churches and hotels in sri lanka. five british nationals are among the dead. i heard the explosion and then the roof fell in as. i took the children ran out the - door but when ran out the - i oor but when ran out the and iséééjut'whe'n'“ ' w ' ' ' ran out the and son ééé’jut'whe'n" ’ ' w ' ' ' ran out the and son oniut'whe'n'“ ' w ' ' ' brother—in—law and son on the ground. the authorities say eight people have been arrested and the prime minister says there might have been information received before the attack. this is a serious situation aimed at destabilising the country in the economy. i strongly condemn this attack. in other news, more than 960 people involved in climate change protests in london this week have been arrested

by police — 42 have been charged. police in west yorkshire arrest a number of people in connection with fires burning on ilkley moor. dozens of firefighters are still dealing with the blaze covering six acres. ukraine's president poroshenko has conceded defeat to his rival — volodymyr zelensky — who has won the election run—off with more than 70% of the vote. at least 200 people have been killed and hundreds injured in a series of bomb attacks in sri lanka. five britons are believed to be among the dead. the explosions were targeted at churches during easter services and some luxury hotels.

the attacks took place in the capital colombo, in nagombo, and batticaloa on the east coast. one of the first places to be targeted in colombo was st anthony's shrine, a very popular site for worshippers. three of the city's major hotels were also hit, the kingsbury, the shangri la and the cinnamon grand. followed by two further explosions on the outskirts of colombo. eight people have been arrested. the sri lankan prime minister says there may have been prior information about a possible attack. our south asia correspondent rajini vaidyanathan has the latest. they came here to pray on one of the most sacred days of the year. butjust before nine in the morning, the sanctity of their easter service was shattered. as a violent bomb blast ripped through the historic st anthony's shrine in colombo,

worshippers scrambled to escape. look closely at the left of frame. this amateur video said to show the moment the explosion happened and the smoke billowing from the church. translation: i heard the explosion, and then the roof fell on us. we took the children and ran out from the rear door. but when i came to the hospital, i saw my brother—in—law and son on the ground. at almost the same time, two other churches were also hit by deadly explosions. leaders speaking on behalf of the country's christian minority called for peace and harmony in the wake of these horrific attacks. i would like to call upon all to pray that all those who are injured may be healed soon, and that all these families who have lost someone may be consoled. i condemn to the utmost of my capacity

this act that has caused so much death and suffering to the people. and it wasn'tjust churches. bombs also exploded at three hotels popular with tourists. the sri lankan foreign ministry says five britons are among those killed, two had joint citizenship with the us, details about the victims have yet to be released. outside the luxurious shangri—la hotel, the scene of one of the explosions, investigators are surveying the damage. an eyewitness who was staying on the 25th floor told the bbc what happened. we could hear two loud bangs, and the room was shaking. i could see that a lot of guests are being taken to hospitals. there were casualties among the hotel staff and guests. as grieving relatives

waited for updates, two further blasts were reported. with hundreds of casualties, hospitals are at capacity. this 20—year—old from the united states is being comforted by his father as he receives treatment for his injuries. the government believes most of the blasts were carried out by suicide bombers. the prime minister has admitted officials had some prior knowledge of the attacks but that ministers weren't told. three police officers were killed as a security forces raided a house in colombo today. no group has admitted carrying out the attack. several people have been arrested. the country's prime minister has described today's atrocities as cowardly.

translation: this is a serious situation aimed at destabilising the country and the economy. i strongly condemn this attack aimed at religious institutions and some hotels in the capital. a nationwide curfew is in place, and access to social media has been temporarily banned. this was the worst attack sri lanka has seen since its deadly civil war ended ten years ago. tonight, this usually idyllic island remains on a state of high alert. rajini vaidyanathan, bbc news. the foreign office have put out some advice if you are worried about british friends orfamily in sri lanka caught up in the incidents, please call the foreign office switchboard number: 020 70081500.

joining me now from washington in the united states is alyssa ayres — senior fellow for south asia at the non—partisan thinktank — council on foreign relations. but even then, thank you forjoining us. but even then, thank you forjoining us. thank you, happy to join you but these are tragic circumstances and it is very hard to listen to the package, very painful. tragic circumstances and also something that seems to have come out of the blue? i agree with that. sri lanka has had a history of violence with a three decade long civil war but that civil war was not religious. it was an ethanol linguistic cleavage in the country, with the separatist group tamil tigers, a separatist group. they wanted to create a separate country fighting against the majority government but what we saw today on easter sunday is something quite different apparently targeting christians in the name of

religion. i would also like to note that during the entire three decades of the conflict christians and muslims for that matter were never targeted as minorities so this is an entirely new dimension and something we should be worried about. with all those implications in terms of what the country now does and how relations between different groups within the country might proceed from here. that is right, and i want to reiterate that sri lanka's christian and muslim minority are fairly well integrated so this has never been a point of cleavage on the basis of religion so now people have to work through who is responsible for this attack, how did that happen, what did it mean. the country i hope will come together and maintaina country i hope will come together and maintain a sort of solidarity across religious lines but this is a very important moment in that pivot towards targeting a minority group on the basis of religion. one of the areas i imagine moore will emerge about in the coming hours is the

suggestion there was some prior knowledge that something might happen. and we just simply don't know enough about what this means, what was the prior knowledge? was at one reference but nothing concrete to act upon? we simply do not know, and until there is more information available it is difficult to draw conclusions but obviously governments have a responsibility to keep their citizens safe and try to prevent attacks like that so there will be questions the government needs to answer. and clearly significant and sophisticated targeting, the timing from the point of view of the people carrying out this attack. presumably it went as they wanted it to. that is right, they wanted it to. that is right, the fact there were these coordinated attacks are notjust in one localised area. we saw that in a variety of spaces, churches as well

as luxury hotels but also in the nearby city which is to the north of colombo, and then all the way over in batticoloa, so being able to coordinate attacks on the scale is something people should be worried about. and. and we'll find out how this story — and many others — are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10:30 and 11:30pm this evening in the papers — our guests joining me tonight are chief sports reporter for the sun, martin lipton and the independent‘s chief political correspondent, john rentoul the pope has condemned the attacks in sri lanka — describing them as ‘cruel violence'. speaking at his annual easter day address at the vatican — pope francis said he stood by the victims of the attacks — saying that christians had been hit by'mourning and pain‘. our religion editor martin bashir has the latest.

st peter's had been transformed into a vast garden of flowers as christians gathered to celebrate the resurrection of jesus. but as news of the attacks in sri lanka reached the vatican, the pope's traditional easter message was altered to acknowledge the unfolding tragedy. translation: i heard of the serious attacks in sri lanka today with great pain and sadness that on easter sunday have brought mourning and suffering. i would like to express my closeness and affection to the christian community, struck while it was gathered in prayer, and to all the victims of the cruel violence. at canterbury cathedral, archbishop justin welby condemned the attacks. the will to power leads to the murder of innocents in sri lanka, the utterly despicable destruction that, on this holiest of days, seeks to undermine the reality of the risen christ, to say that darkness

will conquer, that our choice is surrender or death. the queen, who is 93 today, also attended an easter service at st george's chapel, windsor. and in paris, worshippers were invited to attend mass at saint—eustache church, on the other side of the river to notre—dame. during the service, archbishop michel aupetit handed over a bible rescued by firefighters from notre—dame — a sober moment on what is normally a joyous day in the christian calendar. modern bushehr, bbc news. there's disagreement amongst climate change protesters this evening — over whether to pause the protests — which have been going on in central london for a week. this morning one organiser said they were considering a change in tactic — moving towards negotiation —

but by this afternoon others insisted the direct action protest would go on. more than 830 people have been arrested. our correspondent jon donnison has more. for a seventh day, climate change protesters were making noise on the streets of london. some dressed for the weather, others not so much. all week, the atmosphere has been remarkably good—natu red. the people that are standing here today and that have been here for seven days are amazing, and without people standing up and speaking out loud and shouting, nobody will listen. on waterloo bridge, there were more arrests after demonstrators glued oi’ locked themselves together to block the road. but around lunchtime, as protests continued, came news of a shift in a leaked e—mail sent to demonstrators, one organiser saying perhaps it was time for a pause with a transition from mass

disruption to negotiations with political leaders. for some here, worth considering. this kind of action won't be needed if the government responds properly. i mean, you know, the demands, actually, are reasonable and so in line with the science. it is an untenable position not for the government not to negotiate. this evolving movement has no real leaders, and the message that it is time to pause is by no means felt by everyone. we have spoken to one organiser who says that direct action, like the kind of thing we have seen over the past week, should and will continue in the coming days. the agreement that has been agreed is that we will carry on with a week of activities, we have got a whole week scheduled. while some protesters may think it is time for negotiation, others believe talks will only be successful alongside the pressure that direct action brings. jon donnison, bbc news,

in central london. our correspondent, simonjones, is at marble arch, which is the officially designated protest site for extinction rebellion. what is happening this evening? hundreds of people gathered here at marble arch to hear from the 16—year—old swedish activist greta thunberg. she rose to fame after she began a protest outside of the swedish parliament saying politicians were simply not doing enough to tackle climate change. that prompted protests and many other countries including here in the uk where school pupils decided to walk out of class for the day to protest about climate change. she has become a leader and she was greeted like a by people here who started chanting, we love you, as

she began her speech. as she told the crowd gathered here, the planet was facing an existential crisis. humanity is now standing at a crossroads. we must decide what path we want to take. how do we want the future living conditions for all species to be like? we have gathered here today and in many other places around london and across the world. we have gathered today because we have chosen which path we want to ta ke have chosen which path we want to take and now we are waiting for the others to follow our example. applause. we are the ones making a difference. we are the ones making a difference. we the people in the extinction rebellion and the children struggling for the climate, we are the ones making a difference. it shouldn't be like that but since no

one else is doing anything we will have to do so. applause. and we will never stop fighting. we will never stop fighting for this planet and for ourselves, our future and for the future of our children and for the future of our children and grandchildren. thank you. you heard from the reaction of the crowd how well the speech went down. she was in many ways preaching to the converted but a lot of people i spoke to afterwards commented on her age, just 16, and i spoke to a couple of women who are just 30 and they said they really wish they had been doing something similar at their age, and another i spoke to, rather older, saying it was a bit sad that he was having to be told what to do by somebody so young but her message was totally right. and a word about the geographical spread of this because i described this as

the designated site for extinction rebellion. people gathering. is that now the one place in london or is it still scattered around ? now the one place in london or is it still scattered around? it has changed during the day. this is the designated site where people can lawfully come to take part in the protest. there were two other sites at the start of today, one in westminster and the other waterloo bridge. westminster has now come to an end so just before the speech today we saw a procession of people who had been protesting at westminster over the past seven days come and join the big site here, but waterloo bridge still remains a point of protest and police have been telling people who remain there this evening that they have no right to be there. it is unlawful and they face being arrested. the police have given that message to the protesters many times before and it seems to be falling on deaf ears. they seem determined to keep that site. some

debate about what best to do as we approach a second week of protest. there is going to be a meeting at marble arch, a forum tomorrow to discuss the best way forward with some divided views about whether these disruptive protests should continue whether the focus should be more on politics. thank you. the headlines on bbc news. at least 200 people have been killed in sri lanka after eight explosions at hotels, and churches during easter services. five british citizens are among 27 foreign nationals believed to have been killed in the blasts. the queen has attended an easter service at windsor castle on her 93rd birthday. a crowd sang "happy birthday" as she left st george's chapel. sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here's damian johnson.

liverpool are back on top of the premier league after a 2—0 victory over cardiff city. they have leapfrogged the champions manchester city yet again after a tense afternoon in south wales. there were significant results for the top four too, as david ornstein reports. a day as vital to liverpool's title bid as cardiff's fight against relegation. a day when chances had to be taken and wastefulness could prove costly. for periods the gulf in quality was clear but pressure can bea in quality was clear but pressure can be a leveller and both goalkeepers were to thank for keeping the scores level. level but not for long. georginio wijnaldum breaking the deadlock and almost the net. the smile a mark of what it meant. cardiff should have equalised. how did morrison miss? their afternoon then went from bad to worse with a penalty to

liverpool. james milner is reliable as ever. still in contention for a first title in 29 years. knocked out of europe in midweek, manchester united's focus now is to finish in the top four, but those hopes were dented by an abject display that saw everton condemn them to a sixth defeat in eight. thejob everton condemn them to a sixth defeat in eight. the job faced by them looks bigger by the game. arsenal had a great chance to move above tottenham and into third...but they were beaten 3—2 at home by crystal palace. christian bentake got his first goal in a year as palace moved to 42 points to secure their place in the premier league next season. for arsenal though, a missed opportunity. let's have a run through some of the day's other football headlines. celtic need just four more points from their four remaining premiership games to clinch another league title. they were held to a goalless draw at hibernian this afternoon, hibs keeper ofir marciano was in inspired form to keep neil lennon's side out.

chelsea have lost their first leg of their women's champions league semi final against lyon. they lost 2—1, so they did get an away goal which could prove to be vital come the second leg. arsenal need just one more win to take the women's super league title after a 2—1 win over everton. they're four points clear at the top of the table, and will win the league if they beat brighton next weekend. great britain have won promotion in the the fed cup for the first time in a quarter of a century after beating kazakhstan at the copperbox arena in london. it was a great day all round for the british team, it started well with johanna konta who was first on court gainst yulia putintseva. she made a poor start and the kazak player took the first set 6—4. konta fought back to level the match and force a deciding set from which she recovered from 4—1 down to win and give britain a 2—1 lead. so that left katie boulter with a chance to claim victory for britain if she could beat zarina dyas.

that match also went to three sets with boulter winning by two sets to one. there were delirious scenes with britain now back in the fed cup world group for the first time in 25 years. the first round of the world snooker championships continues in sheffield and the 2005 champion shaun murphy is in great form. he's on for a whitewash against china's luo honghao, murphy's 9—0 up in his first round match. there's only ever been one other whitewash at the crucible that was byjohn parrott back in 1992, but there's a chance of another in the next 2a hours. and these are live pictures from sheffield, where steven maguire is trailing china's tian pengfei by seven frames to five. live coverage right now via the bbc sport website. that's all the sport for now.

in ukraine — exit polls suggest a comedian with no prior experience of politics — has won a landslide victory —— in the country's presidential election. volodymyr zelenskiy, who stars in a ukrainian tv show as a fictional president, has now beaten the current president, petro poroshenko, with nearly three—quarters of the vote. well a little earlier, i spoke to our ukraine correspondent, jonah fisher, who was at the zelensky campaign headquarters in kiev. i began by asking him about the reaction to this result. we have had a concession from ukraine's president and it is now official that the next president will be zelensky, a comedian with no political experience and one who is currently starring in a television series in which he plays a fictional president. the series is a bit like the west wing with jokes but he is

now the president. as you can hear in the background he is giving a victory press conference and he is confirming that fact will follow fiction and he will go from being best television president to being the real president. extraordinary stuff. the fact he has won by so much, what does it say about people's attitude to mainstream politicians in ukraine? only a part of this boat is really a vote for zelensky. a huge part is about ukraine giving two fingers to ukraine's politicians and president, the political system which many ukrainians think has failed them time after time with politicians having far too close relationship with rich oligarchs. this has been a vote for mr zelensky on the ballot paper but most people are looking further and seeing it as a rejection of the political establishment year and the way they do business. and has he said what he will do now he

has he said what he will do now he has one? he really has not laid out much of a campaign platform other than saying he will be new and different, tougher on corruption than poroshenko was, so at the moment the onus is on the team to lay out some sort of platform for the next month or so because it was a pretty extraordinary campaign that zele ns ky a pretty extraordinary campaign that zelensky thought. he didn't do rallies are political speeches. he mainly communicated through videos posted on social media and the less talk to the more popular he became and that is why today we have ended up and that is why today we have ended up with him winning on 75% of the vote without people really understanding who he is what he believes in. police in west yorkshire have arrested three men — in connection with fires burning on ilkley moor. more than 70 firefighters and a helicopter have been battling a large fire

covering around 25,000 square metres. authorities have urged people enjoying the bank holiday to avoid the area. our reporter olivia richwald who has been at ilkley moor, told us it's proved to be a real challenge for the firefighters there. not only are they getting the heat from the sun but the heat from the ground which has been on fire and it has been a very difficult day for them. we have just has been a very difficult day for them. we havejust had a change of shift but there are still about 60 firefighters here. the flames were put out this morning but all day it has been billowing smoke coming from the motherland that because it has burned out the top and gone slightly underneath now so all day they have been tamping down with wildfire units and jets and helicopter has been flying over with buckets of water from local reservoir. been flying over with buckets of waterfrom local reservoir. they been flying over with buckets of water from local reservoir. they are trying to stop the fire from reigniting in the very hot temperature but it is a very difficult day for them. the update i have just got as they are expected to continue with the firefighting

operation until nightfall is and thenit operation until nightfall is and then it willjust be a watching brief because they cannot fight the fla mes brief because they cannot fight the fla m es if brief because they cannot fight the flames if they don't know what they are doing. they will be watching just to make sure the fire doesn't start again but they will probably be back again here tomorrow. we are going to go back to our main story is at least 200 people have been killed and hundreds injured in a series of bomb attacks in sri lanka. five britons believed to be among the dead. the explosions were targeted at churches during easter services and some luxury hotels. foreign secretaryjeremy hunt said the attacks were ‘devastating and despicable' they are absolutely devastating and despicable attacks and i think what shocked everyone is that on the holiest day of the year for christians when people have gone to church to celebrate the peace of the easter message, there should be this kind of murderous attack by

terrorists who completely, com pletely terrorists who completely, completely misunderstand what this moment is all about for christians going to church on easter sunday, so eve ryo ne going to church on easter sunday, so everyone is very shocked and too obviously we are thinking about the brits, some involved, the high commissioner in sri lanka is working very ha rd commissioner in sri lanka is working very hard and that is a telephone line on the foreign office website for those who want to find out more, but i think there is a broader issue here about the persecution of christians worldwide. we had those terrible attacks two years ago in alexandria in egypt and the attacks in the philippines earlier this year. 3000 christians were killed last year because of their faith, more than any other religious group. the foreign secretaryjeremy hunt with his first public reaction to the bomb blasts in sri lanka. now it's time for a look at the weather with nick miller.

after some stunning easter sunday weather, although tomorrow many of us see more weather, although tomorrow many of us see more cloud it will be another fine and warm day. a bit of rain affecting the far north—west of scotland, especially into the western isles. that pulls away westwards as we go through the night. turning misty especially in central and eastern parts and while we see the temperature lower than this, rural sports getting close to freezing with a touch of frost. and to tomorrow and some high cloud drifting northwards across the uk turns the sunshine increasingly hazy although it is a sunnier day for the western isles and western counties of northern ireland compared with recent days. a bit breezy with a fresher south easterly breeze more noticeable. not out of the question there could be a late shower somewhere toward south—east england and south wales especially on higher ground. it will be very warm once more but it turns cooler in the week ahead, goodbye.