Around 100 people have been killed and more than 400 wounded in near-simultaneous explosions that rocked three churches and three hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

The blasts caused fatalities among worshippers and hotel guests, a security official said.

Two of the blasts were suspected to have been carried out by suicide bombers.

St Anthony’s Shrine and the three hotels where the blasts took place are in Colombo, and are frequented by foreign tourists.

Sri Lankan soldiers secure the area around St Anthony’s Shrine (Eranga Jayawardena/AP)

Alex Agieleson, who was near the shrine, said buildings shook with the blast, and that a number of injured people were carried away in ambulances.

Local TV showed damage at the Cinnamon Grand, Shangri-La and Kingsbury hotels.

An elderly woman is helped near St Anthony’s Shrine (Eranga Jayawardena/AP)

Other blasts were reported at St Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, a majority Catholic town north of Colombo, and at Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa.

St Sebastian’s appealed for help on its Facebook page.

The explosion ripped off the roof and knocked out doors and windows at St Sebastian’s, where people carried the wounded away from blood-stained pews, local TV footage showed.

Sri Lankan security officials said they were investigating. Police immediately sealed off the areas.

– Press Association