Set back from a strip of golden sand and the shimmering sea, beyond the groves of palm trees heavy with coconuts, the Roman Catholic church in the small town of Negombo had been a place of calm devotion amid the colour, vibrancy and noise of Sri Lanka for more than 200 years. Then on Sunday morning, St Sebastian’s became a place of chaos, pain and death. At about 8.45am, explosives sent shards of metal and debris into the worshippers crowded on its wooden pews to celebrate mass. The blast was so powerful it destroyed much of the building’s roof, leaving shattered tiles among the casualties slumped across the floor. Almost simultaneously, there was a blast in another church: St Anthony’s Shrine in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo. It too left a scene of devastation with shattered icons, blood-spattered clothes, and burns scorched on to walls by the intense heat of the explosion. “A bomb attack to our church pleas[e] come and help if your family members are there,” read a plaintive post on social media, posted by a survivor of the St Anthony’s attack. Witness NA Sumanapala was near St Anthony’s church when the blast happened. “I ran inside to…