The two Australians killed in the Sri Lankan bombings have been identified as mother Manik Suriaaratchi and her 10-year-old daughter Alexandria. Lucien Pereira, a friend of Suriaaratchi, confirmed the two had been killed, but her husband, Sudesh Kolonne, is safe, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
“They are so beautiful, so helpful to everyone. They’re just not like normal people, they are so good. I don’t want to believe that we’ve lost them,” Mr Pereira told the publication.
“Since 2008, we went to temples together, their family and our family. Going to church, sharing dinner, kids stuff and all. They went back to Sri Lanka to settle down, I guess, around 2014.
“We’ve been keeping in touch, messaging and stuff, and they’ve been so busy with their lifestyle in Sri Lanka.”
It is believed the mother and daughter were killed when a bomb went off at church in the predominantly Catholic city of Negombo on Easter Sunday morning.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed the two Australians were killed while fronting press on April 23.
“We deeply regret these deaths and we extend our deepest and most sincere sympathies to the family,” he said.
“As the days pass and the injured are treated and some of them succumb to their wounds, we are seeing this massacre go from what was bad, very bad, to much, much worse.”
Two other Australians, both women, one in her 50s and the other in her 20s, are among hundreds of people who were injured in the Easter Sunday attacks.
