ICC Anti-Corruption council official relives horror of Sri Lanka's Easter bombings

On this day last year, ICC Anti-Corruption council officer Steve Richardson chose to eat breakfast in executive lounge on ninth floor of Cinnamon Grand inste of heing down to restaurant, a decision that saved him from Easter Bombings. Richardson, who was in country along with his colleagues to investigate corruption charges against Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), was staying on ninth floor of hotel in Colombo, one of six locations where bombs went off in a series of blasts, killing and injuring hundreds of people across country.

ICC Anti-Corruption council official relives horror 

"We were in Sri Lanka doing follow-up inquiries on a long-running investigation into Sri Lanka cricket," Richardson was quoted as saying by stuff.co.nz

"We sat down for breakfast and I said, 'Oh blimey, here we go again. Ar hotel breakfast'. It does get a bit same when you have stayed in same place for weeks, so we talked about going to breakfast room downstairs. I decided t to because it could get very busy, with long queues."

Little did Richardson kw that a suicide bomber was standing in at Taprobane restaurant in basement, rey to activate a blast. "I got up to get some food and was walking back to table when re was a massive explosion. It shook building. A mushroom cloud came up." " explosion was right below us and I looked out window and I could see swimming pool attendant was getting up holding his ears."

What followed was chaos and Richardson just hoped building was strong eugh to withstand explosion.

"Ar woman was getting up and ran off to pick up her handbag. She h been blown off her feet."

"One thing we were concerned about was that explosion was so big it might bring building down. You hope building will stay structurally safe, but my mind went back to 9/11."

He recalled how people injured were being sent to hospitals in rickshaws and cars and whatever transport was available at that point of time. "y n opened rear entrance to hotel and staff were flagging down tuk-tuks and cars to take away injured. I saw just one ambulance. People were carried into tuk-tuks and cars. Some were unconscious or de." Richardson reached out to his office in Dubai, skimming through social media to find out what was happening. "About 10 minutes later I messd my office in Dubai. y started monitoring news and quickly told us re were incidents at churches in Colombo. "I saw on social media re h been an explosion at Shangri-La Hotel, which is where England team stay on tours to Sri Lanka. It was obvious it was coordinated terrorist attacks."

Richardson and his colleagues were evacuated and group left for airport before a curfew was imposed.

"We went back to our rooms, grabbed our passports and phones. After about 20 minutes we were evacuated."

"re was a curfew implemented at 4pm. We left hotel before curfew and got to airport. y were t allowing anybody in terminal. It was chaos."

A former Metropolitan Police detective superintendent, Richardson said police training helped him remain calm in situation.

"It was quite an incredible experience. A little bit close, but we were among lucky ones to have got out.

" police training helped only in as much as we knew t to panic. Don't become part of problem; follow instructions of staff."

Im credits: Twitter