State of emergency declared in Sri Lanka, curfew imposed

Sri Lanka’s acting president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, on Wednesday declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew to control a fresh wave of protests in Colombo.
Mr Wickremesinghe, in a recorded message broadcast on television, said the directive followed intelligence reports that protesters were storming parliament, the prime minister’s office and the residences of service commanders.
He was sworn in as the acting president after Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country to the Maldives earlier in the day.
Mr Wickremesinghe had been serving as the country’s prime minister.
His statement came as more than 3,000 people, mostly university students, continued protesting near the prime minister’s office, with some storming the building.
However, many troops had been deployed around the area, trying to drive the protesters away by using teargas.
(dpa/NAN)
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