Islamic State supporters are celebrating the Sri Lanka suicide bombings which killed 290 people on Easter Sunday.
The SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks extremist activity online, said ISIS fanatics were praising the terror attacks as revenge for the Christchurch mosques shooting.
No group has claimed responsibility but Sri Lankan police say a previously unknown Muslim extremist group were the subject of an intelligence warning ten days before.
ISIS militants marching in Raqqa, Syria, in 2014. This year the fundamentalists were driven from the last land they occupied but security experts have warned of 'pop up' terror cells
A view of St. Sebastian's Church, which was damaged in the blast in Negombo, north of Colombo, on Sunday morning
Early evidence points towards Islamist group National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ), according to intelligence chiefs, who warn that more attacks are expected.
SITE Intelligence Group director Rita Katz said IS supporters have applauded the attacks on social media, news.com.au reported.
Ms Katz said IS media channels were ‘posting rampantly’ about the blasts and praying ‘may Allah accept’ the suicide bombers.
She claimed that the online praise indicated the group may be preparing to take responsibility for the attacks.
Sri Lankan security officials said they were investigating. Police immediately sealed off the areas (pictured: St Anthony's Shrine)
A map showing where the eight blasts went off, six of them in very quick succession on Easter Sunday morning
‘While such a claim may frame the op as revenge for New Zealand, this was likely planned long before,’ she said.
Australian born Brenton Tarrant is facing 50 counts of murder and 39 counts of attempted murder after opening fire on two mosques in Christchurch on March 15.
Seven suicide bombers killed at least 290 people and injured around 500 in coordinated attacks on five-star hotels and churches on Easter Sunday.
The terror attack was Sri Lanka's deadliest violence since a devastating civil war in the South Asian island nation ended a decade ago.
Police have so far arrested 13 people over the attacks, describing those in custody only as ‘religious extremists’.
Ten days ago, according to documents seen by the AFP new agency, Sri Lanka's police chief Pujuth Jayasundara issued an intelligence alert to top officers warning Islamist suicide bombers planned to hit 'prominent churches'.
A crime scene official inspects the site of a bomb blast inside a church in Negombo, Sri Lanka, which lost half its roof tiles with the force of the blast
