Colombo - Crisis-hit Sri Lanka declared a nationwide state of emergency on Wednesday, hours after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country, the Prime Minister's office said.
"Since the president is out of the country, an emergency has been declared to deal with the situation in the country," Prime Minister's spokesman Dinouk Colombage told AFP.
Fresh protests have been launched demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe hours after the Presidents departure.
Protesters approached the Prime Minister’s office on Flower Road, Colombo 07 and then marched to the private residence of Mr Wickremesinghe which was burnt down on Saturday. There is a heavy deployment of security forces around the area.
Military personnel used tear gas shells to disperse protestors who scaled the wall to enter Sri Lankan PM's residence in Colombo, reported ANI.
Protesters have claimed that they would next head to the Parliament. Earlier President Rajapaksa left on a Sri Lanka on an Airforce flight to the Maldives leaving the country in suspense without handing over his resignation or making acting arrangements.
The Air Force and the Prime Minister’s office in two separate statements confirmed that the President left earlier in the day.
A senior government official said that the President has so far not handed in his resignation to Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena or the President’s Secretary Gamini Senarath.
The Sri Lankan President, slipped away in the middle of the night with his wife and two bodyguards aboard a Sri Lankan Air Force plane bound for the city of Male, the capital of the Maldives.
Rajapaksa agreed to resign under pressure. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he would leave once a new government was in place.
The president’s departure followed months of demonstrations that culminated Saturday in protesters storming his home and office and the official residence of his prime minister. The protests have all but dismantled his family’s political dynasty, which ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades.
On Wednesday morning, Sri Lankans continued to stream into the presidential palace. A growing line of people waited to enter the residence, many of whom had traveled from outside Colombo on public transport.
People throng President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's official residence three days after it was stormed by anti government protesters in Colombo in Colombo/AP Photo
There was no end to the crisis in sight, and protesters vowed to occupy the official buildings until the top leaders are gone. For days, people have flocked to the presidential palace almost as if it were a tourist attraction — swimming in the pool, marveling at the paintings and lounging on the beds piled high with pillows. At one point, they also burned the prime minister’s private home.
-AP/TO/ANI