He received a lot of criticism for not doing it the following day, but there was a ready excuse of Monday still being a national holiday (as if they couldn’t find someone to arrange the proper lights on a free day).
Helsinki’s Finlandia Hall lights up for Sri Lanka bombing victims
Helsinki mayor Jan Vapaavuori condemned as “cowardly” acts of terrorism that target innocent victims.
Helsinki landmark Finlandia Hall was bathed in red, gold and green, the main colours of the Sri Lanka flag, on Tuesday night in memory of more than 350 people killed in coordinated suicide bombings in the capital Colombo on Easter Sunday. Another 500 people were injured in the attacks.
Finland’s capital city said in a statement that the show of solidarity took place on Tuesday night, as the venue had been closed during the Easter weekend.
Helsinki mayor Jan Vapaavuori condemned what he called cowardly terrorist acts aimed at innocent people.
“Terrorism that targets innocent people around the world is cowardly and must be condemned. We share Sri Lanka’s sorrow by illuminating Finlandia Hall in the main colours of the [country’s] flag today. We must never surrender to violence and terror,” Vapaavuori said in the release.
Finlandia Hall was previously illuminated in the colours of the French flag following an attack on the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January 2015 that killed 12 people, and most recently after a shooting attack by a lone gunman at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand claimed 50 lives.
Sri Lankan officials have so far held a total of 58 people in connection with the strikes and confirmed that Indian intelligence had warned them about potential attacks targeting churches weeks before Easter Sunday.
