An armed man fired a church in Sri Lanka, police said on Saturday, with the country on a maximum alert six years since Easter Bombing killed hundreds.
The gunman opened fire on Friday in a church in Manampitiya, 160 kilometers northeast of the capital, Colombo, said a police statement.
The shooting damaged the windows, and no one was injured, while a suspect was arrested, police said.
“The initial investigations suggest that the suspect had addressed the church due to a personal enmity with the pastor,” the statement said.
Police and armed troops have been deployed in almost all churches throughout the country during Easter celebrations, and security increased after the 2019 attack.
Suicide bombers in 2019 killed 279 people, including 45 foreigners, in three churches and three hotels.
More than 500 people were injured in the attack, which officials blamed an Islamist group of their own harvest.
The Catholic Church will commemorate the victims on Monday by declaring them “heroes of faith.”
The Catholic minority of Sri Lanka has maintained a campaign for justice since the bombings, saying that the previous investigations did not answer pending questions.
The Church has accused successive governments of protecting those behind the attack, and several high -level research have identified links between military intelligence units and bombers.
