Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa flees as protesters surround his residence, says report
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Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has fled his home as protesters surrounded and stormed his residence today, AFP reports citing a defence source and local media.
The Defence Ministry sources told news agency that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was removed from the official premises yesterday for his safety ahead of the planned rally over the weekend.
Thousands of protesters clashed with the police and breached barricades to storm the President’s official residence in the capital city of Colombo. At least 21 people, including two policemen were injured and hospitalised in the ongoing protests, hospital sources said.
IBNA reports : Hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding the resignation of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa stormed the President’s House here on Saturday after overcoming stiff resistance put up by security forces, leaving an unspecified number of people injured.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Saturday called an emergency meeting of party leaders after thousands of protesters demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa stormed the President’s House here.
The meeting has been called for to discuss the current situation in the country and come to a swift resolution, NewsWire reported.
The Prime Minister has also requested Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena to summon Parliament.
The protesters, mostly young and male, some of them waving Sri Lankan flags, broke the police barricades on Chatham Street in Colombo’s Fort area and entered the President’s House where Rajapaksa was not present, journalists at the site said.
Police used tear gas and water cannons and also opened fire in the air in a desperate bid to scatter the mass gathering but could not prevent the protesters from entering the President’s House.
Some demonstrators scaled the boundary walls while others poured in through the main gate. They then briskly walked into the normally heavily-fortified house, all the time shouting anti-government slogans.
The President’s whereabouts were unknown, the Daily Mirror and other newspapers reported.
Saturday’s action came a month after mass protests forced Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to quit and take shelter in a military camp in the eastern port city of Trincomalee.
The Rajapaksa brothers — part of a large clan — are widely blamed for Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis
