In pictures: Sri Lanka's day of deadly attacks

Image caption A Sri Lankan soldier stands guard next to closed shops in Batticaloa

Hundreds of people have been killed in a series of bomb explosions in churches and hotels in Sri Lanka.

The attacks came as a shock to the country, which thought it had put decades of civil war behind it.

Now churches across the island nation are guarded by armed soldiers, and people desperately search for their loved ones in the cities' morgues.

Here, exhausted medical staff take a rest outside the morgue in Batticaloa, after a bomb was set off in the city's Zion Church.

Sri Lankan hospital workers stand at the door to a morgue following a blast in a church in Batticaloa

For those who have identified their loved ones, it is devastating.

A relative of a Sri Lankan victim of an explosion at a church weeps outside a hospital in Batticaloa

Another bomb was set off at St Anthony's Shrine, in the Kochchikade neighbourhood of Colombo, which is now heavily guarded by Sri Lankan security forces.

Sri Lankan security forces secure the area around St. Anthony's Shrine after an explosion hit St Anthony's Church in Kochchikade

Some of Colombo's Buddhist monks visited St Anthony's Shrine after the attack.

About 70.2% of Sri Lanka's population is Theravada Buddhist, according to a 2012 census, and it's the religion of the country's majority Sinhalese population.

Buddhist monks stand in front of the St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade

Hotels were targeted too - including the Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo, which has suffered significant damage.

A general view showing the damages after an explosion hit Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo

Catholic priests wait inside St Sebastian's Church in Katuwapitiya, Negombo, while officials inspect the scene. They stand next to a blood-splattered statue of Jesus Christ.