Dasun Shanaka narrowly misses Sri Lankan church blasts, says he will never forget the scene

Things would have been different had he attended Sunday morning mass at St Sebastian's Church in Negombo, his hometown, that day.

He reportedly missed it as he was tired.

"Normally I would have gone to church but the day before I had gone to Anuradhapura, so I was tired," Shanaka recounted to ESPNcricinfo, his voice cracking. "That morning, when I was at my house, I heard a sound, and then people were saying a bomb had gone off at the church. I rushed there, and I'll never forget the scene."

"The entire church was destroyed, absolutely shattered, and people were dragging lifeless bodies outside," he told the news portal.

"My first instinct was to look for my mother. Once I spotted her, I took her away from the area. Then I began looking for my grandmother, but when I heard that she had been sitting inside, my heart sank," he recalled. "If you saw the scene, you would know there was no way anyone inside could have survived, because simply the debris from the blast had injured everyone even in the vicinity."

"She (his mother) was near the window, but had been protected from the brunt of the blast by a nearby partition, and she suffered only minor injuries. Many of those around her had died," he said.

Eight blasts rocked Sri Lanka on Sunday and killed 321 people killed.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the blasts.