Indian early warnings to Lankan officials were based on information gathered from ISIS suspect

Early warnings from India's intelligence services to Sri Lankan officials ahead of the Easter Sunday bombings were based on information gathered from an ISIS suspect, CNN reports.

Delhi passed on unusually specific intelligence in the weeks and days leading up to the attacks, Sri Lankan officials have said, and at least some of it was gleaned from material obtained during interrogations of an ISIS suspect arrested in India, an Indian official told CNN.

The revelation comes as ISIS claimed responsibility for the bombings, which killed 321 people and injured more than 500. In a statement published by the ISIS-affiliated news agency Amaq, the group said the attackers were "fighters of the Islamic State."

The number of casualties could have been even higher. Authorities said Tuesday that a fourth hotel was among the original targets, but the attack at that location failed. Officials previously said they found an unexploded pipe bomb near Colombo's international airport.

Dehli's information came from the interrogation of an ISIS suspect, the Indian source told CNN. After being interrogated, the suspect gave investigators the name of a man he trained in Sri Lanka, who is associated with the local extremist group, the NTJ, the source said.

"While we were investigating ISIS cases, during the interrogation of an accused, he disclosed the name of a man, Zahran Hashim, who is one of the suicide bombers and is associated with NTJ," said the intelligence source in India. "The suspect said that he played a role in his (Hashim's) radicalization."

The Indian intelligence source did not specify when the arrest was made. "Indian intelligence agencies shared their information with their counterparts in Sri Lanka," the source said.