Sri Lanka protesters storm President’s House, demand resignation

Al Jazeera:-

Thousands of protesters in Sri Lanka 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.

Some protesters, holding Sri Lankan flags and helmets, broke into President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s residence in capital Colombo, video footage from local TV news channel NewsFirst showed on Saturday.

Troops fired in the air to prevent angry crowds from overrunning the President’s House, reports said. It is not clear if he was inside the building.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has called an emergency meeting of political party leaders amid growing anger over the government’s handling of an economic crisis.

Wickremesinghe also requested the speaker to summon parliament, a statement from the prime minister’s office said.