COLOMBO – Protesters in Sri Lanka stormed the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s residence on Saturday, demanding his resignation amid country’s economic crisis amid curfew in the island nation’s capital.
Soldiers rushed to the president’s residence fired in the air to restrain the charged mob till Rajapaksa could escape, reports in international media said, adding that the 73-year-old was safely escorted by a military unit.
The development comes as anti-government protestors marched to Colombo demanding his resignation after huge protests as country of nearly 220 million declared bankruptcy.
Scores of people, including law enforcement personnel, suffered injuries in the protests on Saturday, per reports.
Lankan people held Rajapaksa responsible for the economic crisis which took the country’s into the worst economic woes since independence.
In the viral clips, protesters can be seen breaching security barricades and barging into his official residence, facing tear gas and water cannons.
https://twitter.com/itskalindi/status/1545689062165528576
Protesters holding “Go Gota Go” placards entered the pool of the presidential palace while a large number of people chanted slogans through the staircase and corridors of the Presidential residence.
Colombo: Protestors Storm the kitchen of Presidential residence, local media footage shows. pic.twitter.com/EIRnLWqHw6
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) July 9, 2022
Amid the looming situation, Lankan premier Ranil Wickremesinghe has called an emergency meeting of party leaders.
The protests erupted in March this year as the island nation was thrown into a deep economic crisis amid a chronic shortage of foreign currency to import basic necessities and sky-rocketing inflation.
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The country defaulted on its debt for the first time in its history and now eyes financial support from money lending banks.
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