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Emergency in Sri Lanka: President Rajapaksa flees, protests at PM's home, shots heard | Videos
Sri Lanka protests: Angry protesters stormed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's Colombo home, demanding that he follow president Gotabaya Rajapaksa in resigning.
The Sri Lanka government has declared a state of emergency after embattled president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled late Tuesday night to Maldives, news agency AFP said citing sources within prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's office.
"The prime minister, as acting president, has declared a state of emergency (countrywide) and imposed a curfew in the western province," the PM's media secretary, Dinouk Colombage, told news agency Reuters.
Fresh protests erupted in the crisis-hit island nation Wednesday morning after a mob of angry citizens stormed the PM's residence in Colombo to demand that he too resign. Visuals shared by news agency ANI showed thousands clambering over compound walls oblivious to security forces firing tear gas shells.
Security forces have also begun aerial patrols to monitor the situation.
What sounds like gunshots - several of them - can be heard on one ANI video.
As the shots ring out some of the protesters start moving towards the gunshots while other start warily moving away, looking over their shoulders. The video pans to show a few protesters running away from an unidentified house.
Protesters have labelled Wickremesinghe - a veteran Sri Lankan leader sworn-in in May amid hope he could resolve this crisis - as a 'failed prime minister'.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa is expected to resign from his post later today after months of holding on to power in face of increasingly desperate and violent protests.
"What Rajapaksa did - flee - is a timid act," Bhasura Wickremesinghe, a 24-year-old student, told the Associated Press, "I’m not celebrating. There’s no point celebrating. We have nothing in this country at the moment."
The resignation letter has not yet been received by the parliament speaker, ANI reported. "We haven't received president Gotabaya's resignation yet, but we hope to get one in a day," Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said.
READ | Rajapaksa to resign by noon, Wickremesinghe may take over: Report
Under the Sri Lankan Constitution, the prime minister becomes the acting president, something protesters have made very clear they will not allow.
"We want the PM to resign because as per our constitution if the President resigns PM becomes the acting President. People want both of them to leave," a former advisor to the Sri Lanka government told news agency ANI.
Like Rajapaksa, Wickremesinghe has committed to resigning but reportedly with a caveat - only if an alternate government is in place.
The prime minister has, however, also been talked up as a potential replacement for the president - a move certain to further anger protesters.
Visuals shared by ANI showed protesters massed outside the PM's home - in scenes very like the storming of the president's residence on Saturday.
READ | Mob storm Sri Lanka president's home, shots fired; Rajapaksa flees
The protesters can be heard shouting and booing.
Another shows protesters coming face-to-face with a long line of heavily armed and armoured military personnel stationed outside the prime minister's home.
Some of the protesters can be heard chanting 'go, go' in response to others shouting out the names of the prime minister and president.
The troubled island nation - where a severe forex shortage has led to scarcity of food, fuel and other essentials - has been consumed by widespread and often violent protests since early this year.
READ | Heavily in-debt Sri Lanka falls into default for the first time ever
Talks are on for a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), while neighbours India continue to offer credit for the purchase of essential goods.
(With inputs from ANI, AFP, AP, Reuters)
