A high-flying British lawyer whose entire family was wiped out in the Sri Lanka massacre wandered around in a blood-soaked T-shirt desperately asking for his relatives, hospital staff said.
Shell-shocked Ben Nicholson was seen walking the streets of Colombo desperately hunting for his loved ones in the aftermath of the devastating blasts that killed 290 and injured more than 500 people.
His wife Anita, 42, son Alex, 11, and young daughter Annabel have all been confirmed to have died in the atrocity.
Anita Nicholson was having breakfast with her family at the Shangri La hotel in Colombo when two suicide bombers walked in and blew themselves up on Easter Sunday.
Alex, his younger sister Annabel and his mother, Anita, were all killed in the Table One cafe on the second-floor of the hotel in the country's capital at around 8.30am.
They were on a family holiday when they got caught up in the attacks, which Sri Lankan authorities have blamed on a little-known Islamist group called National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ), which were said to have had 'international help'.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Pushpa Zoysa, in charge of the emergency triage at the National Hospital in Colombo, said: 'I saw him covered in blood like this, walking up and down just there.
Ben, Anita, Alex and Annabel Nicholson. All but dad Ben were killed during the blast at the Shangri La hotel in Colombo on Easter Sunday
'He spoke to me twice, asking about his family. He had blood all over him but he was not injured, apart from a small cut to his ear.
'He was not running or crying, he was shocked. We wondered whether he was confused but he seemed in control. He just kept asking about his family members.
'He was walking around completely alone and I feel sorry for him but there were so many dead and dying people here, I didn't have time to speak to him more. Eventually he left.'
Ms Zoysa went on to describe the scenes of carnage that the hospital dealt with in the aftermath of the multiple atrocities.
She said: 'It felt like a bomb had gone off right here. Vehicles were arriving full of body parts and with badly injured people.
'We sent 22 bodies to the police mortuary and kept 11 here. Eight of those were dead when they arrived and the other three died in the emergency room.
'They has no chance. They had multiple injuries and they looked dead. We tried to resuscitate them but there was no hope.' The foreign patients a the hospital discharged themselves against medical advice, she said.
'All day we have had people coming here I ask about missing people,' she added. 'I'm not surprised because there were vehicles coming in full of body parts.'
Among the at least 35 foreign nationals killed in the co-ordinated blasts was billionaire ASOS owner Anders Holch Povlsen also lost three of his four children in the terror attacks.
A spokesman for Povlsen, Denmark's richest man who also owns a huge estate in Scotland, confirmed the deaths but did not say which of his four children had been killed. The billionaire had been on holiday with his family for the Easter holidays but he, his partner, and one of his children survived.
Just days before the devastating attacks, one of Povlsen's children, Alma, shared a holiday snap of her siblings Astrid, Agnes and Alfred, next to a pool.
Sri Lankan officials have blamed a little-known Islamist group called National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) for the terrorist attacks, adding that the organization had 'international help', raising fears that ISIS was involved.
Islamist extremist material has been recovered from a hotel room allegedly used by the suspects in the Sri Lanka hotel bombings, MailOnline can reveal.
The seven bombers co-ordinated their attacks targeting five-star hotels and churches on Easter Sunday in an apparent deliberate attempt to target westerners and Christians.
Manisha Gunasekera, the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to the UK, has said eight British nationals were killed in the attacks. In total 39 foreigners have been confirmed dead including two joint UK-US nationals and a number of Dutch, Turkish, Australian and Portuguese people.
Just days before the devastating attacks, one of Povlsen's children, Alma, shared a snap of her three siblings Astrid, Agnes and Alfred, next to a pool. It is not yet known which of Povlsen's three children have died
Povlsen, 46, and Anne Storm Pedersen, pictured together left, met when Anne began working in sales for Bestseller. Brit Alex Nicholson, 11, was killed with his mother Anita, 42, pictured together right, as they ate breakfast in the Shangri La in Colombo
Seven suicide bombers killed at least 290 people in coordinated attacks on five-star hotels and churches on Easter Sunday. Pictured: the interior of St Sebastian's church in Negombo
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
Sri Lankan soldiers secure the area around St Anthony's Shrine after a blast in Colombo. A van exploded near where dozens of people died the previous day
Sri Lankan Police officers inspects a blast spot at the Shangri-la hotel in Colombo a day after a bomb ripped through the building on Easter Sunday
A map showing where the eight blasts went off yesterday, six of them in very quick succession on Easter Sunday morning
10.10am local time (05.40 BST): Reports from witnesses suggest that two churches in Sri Lanka have been hit by explosions as worshippers gather on Easter Sunday. The historic St Anthony's Shrine in Colombo and St Sebastian's Church in Negombo are among those reported to have been hit.
10.50am: An unnamed security official suggests there have been six closely-timed attacks at three churches and three hotels and that suicide bombers may have been involved in at least two of the blasts.
12.20pm: It is reported 129 people are dead and more than 500 have been taken to hospital after blasts at six sites, according to a Sri Lanka state-run newspaper.
1.50pm: Sri Lanka's top military officials are brought together for an emergency meeting of the National Security Council. The meeting is called by prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has tweeted that 'the government is taking immediate steps to contain the situation'.
3.45pm: Two more explosions take place, the first hitting a guesthouse in Dehiwala, in which at least two people died, and a second in the district of Dematagoda on Colombo's outskirts.
5.20pm: It is reported that two police officers were killed during a swoop on suspects in Dematagoda.
5.25pm: A 6pm to 6am national curfew is imposed by Sri Lanka's government. Sri Lankan Airlines tells passengers booked on flights out of the country that they will be able to fly despite the curfew. the government also locked down social media sites and messaging apps to avoid the spread of misinformation or incitements to violence.
6.10pm: The number of victims from the blasts now stands at 207 people killed and 450 wounded, Sri Lankan police say.
Officials say that seven suspects have been arrested.
8.10pm (3.40pm British Summer Time) Five Britons including two people holding joint US and British citizenship were among those killed in the attacks, the country's foreign ministry said.
9.30pm Police said 13 were arrested, all Sri Lankans.
Monday - 1.05pm Sri Lankan High Commissioner to the UK, Manisha Gunasekera, said eight British nationals were killed in the attacks.
2.15pm - Cabinet spokesperson says National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) are to blame for the attacks.
2.25pm - Officials said 24 suspects are in custody for questioning.
4.45pm - Sri Lanka's minister of tourism says 39 foreign tourists were killed in the Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels, while another 28 were wounded.
Cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said: 'We do not believe these attacks were carried out by a group of people who were confined to this country. There was an international network without which these attacks could not have succeeded.'
The NTJ were the subject of an intelligence warning ten days before the attacks. The warning said they were planning attacks on churches and the Indian high commission.
Police sources confirmed that the terrorists who targeted the Shangri La hotel had 'pamphlets and paraphernalia' associated with extremist Islamic ideology in their hotel room.
The killers had checked into room 616, where investigators also found two iPhone chargers.
Detectives told local media that the Shangri-La blast was a result of at least 55lbs of C-4 plastic explosives, though the conclusions await formal confirmation by a Government analyst.
Povlsen, 46, is married to Anne Storm Pedersen. The pair met when Anne began working in sales for Bestseller.
The pair have 11 Scottish estates, and a castle, covering an astonishing 221,000 acres. He is Britain's biggest private landowner, surpassing the Dukes of Atholl with 144,000 acres and the Prince of Wales, who owns 130,000 acres.
He began building this ever-growing property portfolio 12 years ago, in the autumn of 2006, with the £7.9 million acquisition of Glenfeshie, a 42,000-acre patch of the Cairngorms National Park.
Povlsen and Anne are said to have a '200-year vision' for their estates, which involves rewilding the land, reports the Times.
His father, Troels, began his fashion empire with a single store in 1975. Povlsen now employs 15,000 people and owns brands such as Jack & Jones and Vero Moda, along with almost 30 per cent of ASOS.
Its success has helped him build a fortune estimated at £5.4 billion.
Povlsen and his wife live at Constantinsborg, a neo-classical former royal palace near Aarhus. The couple send their four children to state schools.
In a statement, Bestseller's spokesperson Jesper Stubkier said: 'I can confirm that three children have been killed.
'We have no further comment and we ask that the family's privacy is respected at this time.'
Blasts ripped through landmarks around the capital Colombo, and on Sri Lanka's east coast, targeting Christians, hotel guests and foreign tourists yesterday. More than 500 people were wounded.
The National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) are a relatively unknown radical Islamist group said to have formed in Kattankudy, a Muslim-dominated town in eastern Sri Lanka, in 2014. It has no history of mass fatality attacks.
Before yesterday's bombings, their main claim to fame was being linked to vandalising of Buddhist statues.
Sources in the Muslim community in Sri Lanka claim the group has publicly supported Islamic State. They also say that Zahran Hashim, named in reports as one of the bombers, was its founder.
Authorities said 24 people have been arrested and that they were hunting for links between the group and foreign backers.
'We don't see that only a small organisation in this country can do all that,' cabinet member Rajitha Senaratne said.
The Soufan Center, a New York based group that monitors global security threats, said the Sri Lanka bombings bore all the 'hallmarks' of 'attacks by other Salafi-jihadist groups, particularly those where local groups receive foreign support'.
It highlighted the Christmas Eve bombings in Indonesia in 2000, where al-Qaeda worked with local group Jemmah Islamiyah, and the 2005 hotel bombings in Amman masterminded by an Al-Qaeda affiliate.
'These attacks are designed to increase sectarian tensions and destabilise the governments of the countries where they take place,' said a Soufan Center study.
A report released by the group in January said Al Qaeda and Islamic State wanted to recruit followers in South Asia and their propaganda 'highlighted injustices against Muslims in Bangladesh, Myanmar, India, and Sri Lanka.'
NTJ secretary Abdul Razik has been arrested several times on charges of inciting religious unrest.
In January, Sri Lankan security forces discovered 100 kilogrammes of high explosives and 100 detonators near a remote wildlife park.
While no group was accused, authorities said four Muslim radicals had been detained.
Major questions are now being asked over whether Sri Lankan police did enough to head off fears of suicide attacks on churches.
Sri Lanka's police chief issued a warning on April 11, saying a 'foreign intelligence agency' had reported NTJ was planning attacks on churches and the Indian high commission.
Brit Alex Nicholson, 11, his younger sister Annabel and his mother, Anita, 42, were killed in the Table One cafe on the second-floor of the Shangri La hotel in the country's capital, Colombo, at around 8.30am.
They were on a family holiday. Alex's father Ben Nicholson
