The island’s premier Catholic church will tomorrow hold a special service to commemorate the victims of a string of bomb attacks in Sri Lanka.

The service will be held at St Theresa’s Cathedral in Hamilton in the wake of the Easter Sunday attacks which targeted three churches, two of them Catholic, and hotels.

At least 253 people were killed in the blasts in the country’s capital Colombo and elsewhere and many more were injured.

Wieslaw Spiewak, the Bishop of Hamilton in Bermuda, said Sri Lankans resident on the island, many of whom are Catholic, wanted a special service to honour the victims of the attacks.

Bishop Spiewak added: “We have a good number of Sri Lankan people in Bermuda who are Catholic. This was their initiative because they wanted to express their nearness to their people and their families.

“I said we would be happy to have a Mass and we also want other Sri Lankan people who are not Catholic to come as well.”

The majority of Sri Lankans are Buddhist, but more than seven per cent of the population is Christian, mainly Catholic.

Bishop Spiewak said it was hard to estimate how many Sri Lankans there were on the island, but there were “at least 100 and probably more”.

He added: “Sri Lankans are here and we, as the Catholic people of Bermuda, want to show our respect and compassion.”

John Rankin, the Governor, is expected to speak at the service, which will be held at the Cedar Avenue cathedral at 6pm tomorrow.

Canon Norman Lynas of the Anglican Cathedral will also attend the service.

Bishop Spiewak said the service would feature readings in Sinhalese, the main language in Sri Lanka, as well as traditional music. He added that many Sri Lankans will also wear traditional dress to the Mass.

Responsibility for the attacks was claimed by an offshoot of terrorist group Islamic State.