COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- The speaker of Sri Lanka’s Parliament says President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has agreed to resign as of Wednesday.
Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said in a televised statement Saturday that he informed Rajapaksa of a decision taken at a meeting of Parliamentary party leaders requesting he leave office, and he agreed.
However Rajapaksa will remain as president until Wednesday to ensure a smooth transfer of power, Abeywardena added.
The announcement came hours after protesters stormed the president's official residence to vent their anger over the country’s severe economic crisis. Protesters also broke into the prime minister's private residence and set it on fire.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
Protesters on Saturday broke into the Sri Lankan prime minister's private residence and set it on fire hours after he said he would resign when a new government is formed, in the biggest day of angry demonstrations that also saw crowds storming the president's home and office.
The office of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the protesters forced their way into his Colombo home in the evening. It wasn't immediately clear if he was inside at the time.
Wickremesinghe announced earlier that he would resign in response to calls by political leaders for him and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to quit, after tens of thousands of people trooped to the capital to vent their fury over the nation’s economic and political crisis.
“Today in this country we have a fuel crisis, a food shortage, we have the head of the World Food Program coming here and we have several matters to discuss with the IMF. Therefore, if this government leaves there should be another government,” Wickremesinghe said.
But he made it clear he will not step down before a new government is formed, angering crowds that moved near his home to demand his immediate departure.
Wickremesinghe said he suggested to the president to have an all-party government, but didn’t say anything about Rajapaksa’s whereabouts. Opposition parties in Parliament were discussing the formation of a new government.
Rajapaksa appointed Wickremesinghe as prime minister in May in the hope that the career politician would use his diplomacy and contacts to resuscitate a collapsed economy. But people’s patience wore thin as shortages of fuel, medicine and cooking gas only increased and oil reserves ran dry.
Many protesters accuse Wickremesinghe of trying to save Rajapaksa when he came under pressure to resign and every other member of his powerful political dynasty quit the Cabinet.
Privately-owned Sirasa Television reported that at least six of their staff members including four reporters were hospitalized after they were beaten by police while covering the protest near Wickremesinghe’s home.
Sri Lanka Medical Council, the country’s top professional body, warned that the country’s hospitals were running with minimum resources and will not be able to handle any mass casualties from the unrest.