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Sri Lanka crisis: Protesters storm president's home, cool off in swimming pool
Sri Lanka economic crisis: Some protesters, holding Sri Lankan flags and helmets, broke into the president's residence, video footage from local TV news NewsFirst channel showed.
Thousands of protesters demanding the resignation of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa breached security barricades and entered his official residence, braving tear gas and water cannons as the leader left the compound.
Reports suggest Rajapaksa fled his official residence around 10 am (local time). His secretary Gamini Senarath said he could not contact the leader currently and didn’t know his whereabouts.
A video that surfaced on social media shows a sea of protesters storming the presidential palace in Colombo. Some protesters, holding Sri Lankan flags and helmets, broke into the president's residence, video footage from local TV news NewsFirst channel showed.
Thousands also broke open the gates of the sea-front presidential secretariat and the finance ministry, which has been the site of a sit-in protest for months, and entered the premises, TV footage showed.
Military personnel and police at both locations were unable to hold back the crowd, as they chanted slogans asking President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down.
The protesters took the opportunity to cool off in the swimming pool in Rajapaksa’s official residence after storming the compound, video footage published by local media and on social media showed.
In another video, some protestors can be seen exploring the kitchen in the presidential palace.
A group of protesters gathered at Galle Fort in Colombo that overlooks a cricket stadium where a Sri Lanka-Australia test match was going on. Other groups were hanging around the stadium, chanting “Gota Go Home!”
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has called for an emergency meeting of party leaders to discuss the situation and come to a “swift resolution,” according to a text message from his media office. The meeting is expected to start shortly.
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Wickremesinghe had also requested the speaker to summon parliament.
The island of 22 million people is struggling under a severe foreign exchange shortage that has limited essential imports of fuel, food and medicine, plunging it into the worst economic crisis since independence in 1948.
Soaring inflation, at a record 54.6% in June and expected to hit 70% in the coming months, has heaped hardship on the population.
(With inputs from Bloomberg and Reuters)
