New rise in tension in Sri Lanka. Thousands of demonstrators stormed the offices of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday, July 13, a few hours after he was appointed interim president. The crowd overwhelmed law enforcement and entered the building, waving country flags, as police and military tried to push them back with tear gas and water cannons. Follow the situation live.
Public television disrupted. Protesters opposing the government of Sri Lanka stormed the premises of the main public television channel and disrupted its programmes. The transmission was cut and replaced by a recorded program.
The former president fled the country. President Rajapaksa, who promised to step down on Wednesday, arrived in the Maldives after fleeing the country but has yet to formalize his withdrawal. The constitution provides, in the event of the resignation of the president, that the Prime Minister assumes the interim until the election by Parliament of a deputy who will exercise power until the end of the current mandate, that is to say i.e. November 2024.
State of emergency declared. “As the president has left the country, an emergency has been declared to deal with the situation in the country”said the Prime Minister’s spokesman. For their part, the police said that a curfew had been put in place in the province of Colombo to put an end to the demonstrations.