Thousands of protesters in Sri Lanka's commercial capital Colombo stormed the president's official residence and his secretariat on Saturday amid months of mounting public anger over the country's worst economic crisis in seven decades.
Some protesters, holding Sri Lankan flags and helmets, broke into the president's residence, video footage from local TV news NewsFirst channel showed.
Two defence ministry sources said President Rajapaksa was removed from the official residence on Friday for his safety ahead of the planned rally over the weekend. Hundreds also milled about on the grounds outside the colonial-era white-washed building. No security officials were visible. The crisis comes after Covid-19 hammered the tourism-reliant economy and slashed remittances from overseas workers, and has been compounded by the build-up of huge government debt, rising oil prices and a ban on the import of chemical fertilisers last year that devastated agriculture.
Police fired shots in the air but were unable to stop the angry crowd from surrounding the presidential residence, the witness said.Despite a severe shortage of fuel that has stalled transportation services, demonstrators packed into buses, trains and trucks from several parts of the country to reach Colombo to protest the government's failure to protect them from economic ruin.
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