"My heart sank": Dasun Shanaka revisits Easter Sunday massacre

Shanaka describes how he rescued his mother and grandmother from the church that was vandalised in the blast on Easter Sunday

Sri Lanka cricketer Dasun Shanaka recounted the consternation he underwent on Easter Sunday when he learnt about the deadly blasts in churches and high-end hotels. The cricketer said he was tired on Sunday morning after a journey and decided to skip the church where his mother and grandmother have gone for prayers and Easter celebrations. “Normally I would have gone to church but the day before I had gone to Anuradhapura, so I was tired, that morning, when I was at my house, I heard a sound, and then people were saying a bomb had gone off at the church. I rushed there, and I'll never forget the scene," ESPN Cricinfo quoted Shanaka, as saying.” “The entire church was destroyed, absolutely shattered, and people were dragging mutilated bodies outside,” the 27-year-old added. After rushing to the church, the all-rounder said that he first started looking for his mother and grandmother. “My first instinct was to look for my mother. Once I spotted her, I took her away from the area. Then I began looking for my grandmother, but when I heard that she had been sitting inside, my heart sank, if you saw the scene, you would know there was no way anyone inside could have survived because simply the debris from the blast had injured everyone even in the vicinity,” he said. Shanaka said he feared that his grandmother might have not survived but he sighed with relief when he spotted her moving, lying around other dead bodies. “When I went looking for my grandmother, I wasn't expecting to find her alive. But, as it turned out, the blast had hit and killed those around her, but she had been protected from severe damage by the bodies of the others,” Shanaka said. “In the end, she was hurt badly having been hit in the head with shrapnel, but we were able to take her to hospital for surgery,” he added. The island nation was rocked by a series of eight bomb blasts in three churches and three luxury hotels, killing 321 people and injuring over 500 others. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the suicide attacks.