Thousands of protesters in Sri Lanka's commercial capital Colombo have broken through police barricades and stormed the president's official residence in one of the largest anti-government marches in the crisis-hit country this year.
Thousands of protesters in Sri Lanka's commercial capital Colombo have stormed the president's official residence and his secretariat amid months of mounting public anger over the country's worst economic crisis in seven decades.
Thousands of protesters also broke open the gates of the sea-front presidential secretariat, which has been the site of a sit-in protest for months, and entered the premises, TV footage showed. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Saturday summoned an emergency party leaders meeting to discuss the situation and come to a swift resolution, his office said in a statement.Mr Wickremesinghe has also been moved to a secure location, a government source told Reuters.A Facebook live stream from inside the president's house showed hundreds of protesters, some draped in flags, packing into rooms and corridors, shouting slogan's against Mr Rajapaksa.No security officials were visible.
The island nation 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 financial turmoil in seven decades.Largely peaceful protests since March have demanded his resignation.
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