Sri Lanka Crisis: Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled his official residence in Colombo on Saturday moments before thousands of protesters broke through police barricades and stormed the compound.
Meanwhile, prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called an urgent meeting with his cabinet ministers after the president fled his residence.
Local TV channel NewsFirst showed video footage from the protest where people can be seen holding Sri Lankan flags and helmets.
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A top defence source told AFP that the president was escorted to a safe location.
Demonstrators from across the country arrived in buses, trains and trucks to Colombo earlier on Saturday to express outrage over the government’s failure to protect them from economic ruin. Protesters shouted “Gota go home,” using a common shortened version of the president’s name.
According to Reuters, at least 21 people, including two police, were injured and hospitalised in the protests.
Sri Lanka is going through one of the worst economic crises that the country has witnessed. Many blame the country’s decline on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Protests since March have demanded the president’s resignation.
The current economic crisis in Sri Lanka is a result of badly-timed tax sops, poor investments in projects, and Covid-induced restrictions.