d.w. . business news live from berlin grief and outrage follow a wave of bombings in sri lanka on easter sunday seven blasts rif through luxury hotels churches and aid the explosion came during a police raid the death toll now stands at two hundred seven with hundreds more injured officials are blaming religious extremists and have made several arrests we'll have the latest from colombo. plus exit polls are showing comedians a lot of years of lenski has won a landslide victory in ukraine's presidential runoff race he played

a president on television now he's the real thing incumbent petro poroshenko has conceded. i'm calm assman thanks for joining us we begin in sri lanka following a devastating wave of easter sunday bombings that killed at least two hundred seven people and wounded more than four hundred and fifty world leaders have condemned the coordinated attacks the targeted luxury hotels and churches where abortion purse had gathered for easter services police say thirty five foreign nationals are among the dead most of the eight bombings appear to have been suicide attacks the government is blaming but just extremists and made several arrests but no group has claimed responsibility so far. so hospital in the capital colombo was overwhelmed people brought in victims any way they could to.

outside shock and disbelief at the scale of the violence. no one expected easter sunday to end in this way but the explosion and then the roof fell on us we took the children and ran out but when i came to the hospital our saw my brother in law and son on the ground. among the buildings hit the five star shangri-la hotel in colombo. many had been enjoying a special easter breakfast when the blast went off. it was one of several luxury hotels and a church targeted in the capital. another blast happened at a church in the town of the combo north of the capital more than ninety people died here. then shortly afterwards the zion church in the eastern town of batticaloa was

devastated by another device. it's the worst act of violence in ten years since the end of the country's civil war the government has blamed religious extremists and has warned of serious consequences for the nation. i see this as a serious situation and as destabilizing the country and the economy i strongly condemn this attack aimed at religious institutions and some hotels in the capital . in the aftermath of the carnage a number have arrests have been made and a curfew imposed on the government has been to hunt down all the perpetrators i was given latest now from sri lanka with jamila national dean editor of news in asia and she is a journalist there in colombo it's getting late and sri lanka what's the situation right now after today's were forgiven. hi so it's

a nickel pass a little midnight here right now and we are not seeing any movements on the road except for apply for service and a very heavy police presence in the site where the explosion has taken place and also outside the stock last appearance of course right now there has been a curfew which is it because when imposed this is going the same definitely which is why guessing nobody on the roads is very but i was just out on the doors of a short while ago and it's extremely rare that city do we have any more information about the people that are believed to be behind you the time. right now for the sake of team suspects has been arrested and timing is running become a singer it tell us a short while ago that all those of was being arrested actually younger nationals no no group has been named at the moment and the police have said that they did not name any organization till all they miss ignitions are complete so we do not have

even the slightest idea as to who could be the sponsibility behind these attacks of the community heard about those attacks on hotels that took place in the capital city colombo but two of the three churches that were targeted were in other parts of the country what does that tell us can you tell us anything about a potential motive here. there's basically the church attacks were a clear a clear indication that they were aiming the captain to question first who had gathered on easter sunday and mind you that all the three churches extremely popular churches even sri lanka that day's a very large gathering so when these attacks that happened in the churches in the morning the immediate information because it was this was an attack to ignite criticism and this was an attack especially targeting the catholic community. so these attacks on the catholic community how christians or catholics in sri lanka

felt and he stressed before today's events. yes they have because just last sunday on palm sunday a church in on there are deploying the central province become under attack by a local group of course the police to conduct the speeding with sickish and. you can be splashed one we catholics have says a sense of insecurity instead bt and have the government to look into all the texts which have taken place and also to prevent such attacks in the future but nobody expected the text which they did today which has killed at least two hundred twenty eight people. long of course the country of many religion christianity is a minority religion there have been religious tensions in the past. definitely track in recent years there has been minor incidents targeting minority communities

on and off just last year we saw some deadly attacks against the muslim community begin a in the central highlands which prompted the government to declare a state of emergency and there have been minor incidents which have been taking place against a minority time is so there has been cd's of continuous attacks which has been taking place in recent years but as i've said before this is one of the worst and one of the deadliest all right geneva nodular d.n.a. journalist bring us the latest from colombo thank you very much thank you. well the world reacted with shock after the attacks in sri lanka and nicole restrains me now with more on that nicole what can you tell us well social media today was a dominated by these news on the hashtag sri lanka for example you could find it as a trending topic on twitter but they also went to instagram and facebook just to

share their solidarity share their grief and their condolences and for example german chancellor angela merkel there were lots of world leaders who took to social media as well where she posted on instagram and condemned the terrible attacks she said that she was sad and the shocked and add it as a last sentence that religious hatred and intolerance that have to come apparent today must not win so she's sending a very strong signal there as well on the other hand there is also donald trump who tweeted his condolences he's saying that they're standing ready to help the clear message of support and the iranian foreign minister mohammad job at serif took to twitter paying his respects but he also pointed out that terrorism is a global menace with no religion and that was a message that many people shared because many people also said that terrorism has no religion nor nationality it can be anyone who's attacking anyone at any time really that was a very common message today on twitter we had also we had british prime minister to

resign may who quote said we must stand together to make sure that no one should ever have to practice their faith in fear and this is only a small selection so to say of many tweets that were on social media today the eiffel tower in paris and now it's just a couple of hours ago that they would switch off their lights at midnight at just to pay tribute to the victims of this really terrible attack and there were also lots of lots of people saying this is an attack on humanity among them barack obama the former u.s. president and i think that's really how you can label it just the sad thing is that it's an attack on humanity made by humans are they global response there to the attacks in sri lanka nicole reese think of a much. we move now to ukraine where exit polls in the final round of presidential voting are out and they point to a landslide victory for the comedian of the lot amir's the lenski those polls show

the challenger taking more than seventy percent of the vote if confirmed selenski will go from playing the president on a t.v. show to becoming the country's real life leader incumbent at reports as already conceded defeat and he has congratulated selenski. and joining us now from election events in kiev as correspondent nick connelly nick those exit polls so they're out there showing a huge victory a big margin for the landscape around seventy percent are you surprised at all about what looks to be a massive victory for him. while we journalists over used the term political earthquake but i think if there was ever a time to uses this is it let's just remember this is a candidate who up until new year's eve had and else you'd be running for the presidency someone known to almost all ukrainians exclusively as a showman as a comic comedian and an actor and then coming from just within the space of

a few months to beating the incumbent by quite such a margin you really got the sense here at this party that even some of selenski supporters worst taken aback by the extent and big picture lera to use that victory selenski picking up almost twice as many votes as catsup or single. hertha a result there indeed what have been the reactions so far from the two candidates. were voted in as lenski stay true to form he has been criticised a lot in the past for being very withdrawn not talking to the press not wanting to answer uncomfortable questions from journalists preferring instead to manage his communication with voters by talking directors or media he came out very briefly off first exit polls thanking his team he came out a second time but failed to really answer. any of the difficult questions he refused to say who exactly would have been his new cabinet but at least showed a bit more willingness to engage with the press aspect of course as you mentioned he has already conceded defeat and as we understand called volume is plenty to

congratulate him let's have a listen to what he said to supporters earlier on. and he said next month i will leave my post as president of the country. this is what was decided by the majority of ukrainians leaders and i accept this decision as i will leave the office of the presidency which but i would like to emphasize i am not leaving politics. supporting though there are many defeats singing steps that decision let's go back to the once again now for a second in a debate last week so when he said that he would try to quote break the system what exactly does he mean by that but can be expect from his a lengthy presidency. well he has portrayed himself consistently as the face of a new generation of a new generation in ukraine society but also in ukrainian politics let's not forget present pershing who has been at the forefront of ukraine's politics for tasks two

decades if not longer solecki coming in as someone who can shake this up and doesn't have commitments or doesn't know things to people in ukraine's politics that's at least his claim and his main focus he says will be all corruption because he says corruption is the one thing that has kept ukraine back and has made this country that has tremendous economic potential europe's poorest country this is a country that millions of people are leaving in search of work and his his pledge to the voters is that he will attack that corruption see people in important positions who are profiting illicitly go to jail and help ukraine see economic growth that allows ukrainians to earn a decent living at home without immigration. russia of course plays a big role in ukraine as well what sort of relationship does once he have with russia. well i think would be wrong to portray zelinsky as this one dimensionally pro russia candidate he is someone who speaks russian his

personal life he mixes russian and ukrainian languages in his appearance is that something that preceded it go down well with many of the ukrainians speaking patriotic forces as they refer to themselves in politics but. he has made a point of not showing himself as a friend of moscow there were other candidates who went to moscow travel to moscow during the election campaign met top figures in russia's government that did not pay off they didn't see a big return to the ballot box so he has the chance of the new figure maybe to restart the talks about resolving the conflict in the east of ukraine in a sense where petro poroshenko and let him a future have been at loggerheads for the past five years where there wasn't much sense that anything could happen any progress could be made given the personalities involved in terms of europe well he says he is for ukraine's integration with the e.u. and nato but that he would put that question to the ukrainian people let them decide in a referendum rather than taking that decision for them right mcconnell i think of a much. now look at the top story we're following for you at this hour

a wave of easter sunday bombings in sri lanka has killed at least two hundred seventy people hundreds more were wounded police say thirty five or nationals are bunk the dead the government has blamed religious extremists and arrested several suspects a nationwide curfew is currently and loves washington daily news more top the outlets want. to join arguments policy it's a real policy because there is no rubbishing about everyone rights that only their own cup and then we parted. and you know what the great genius here is a new name.