Sri Lanka Declares Emergency After President Flees: Report

The Sri Lanka government on Wednesday declared a state of emergency after President Gotanaya Rajapaksa fled late on Tuesday night to Maldives, news agency AFP said citing sources within Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office.

Fresh protests erupted in the island country on Wednesday after hundreds of angry citizens marched on the prime minister’s office in Colombo to demand that he also resign.

It has been demanded by the protestors that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa stand down after failing to rescue the country from its worst economic crisis in living memory, and today made a similar demand of the PM, pointing out that the country’s constitution mandates he take over when the president resigns.

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"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.

"Police took action (against the protesters) by tear gas shelling. Army troops moved in."

Visuals shared by ANI showed hundreds of protesters massed outside Prime Minister Wickremesinghe's office - in scenes very like the storming of president Rajapaksa's residence in Colombo on Saturday.

The protesters can be heard shouting and booing.

Another video shows protesters coming face-to-face with 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.

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