Thousands of protesters stormed the main gates of Sri Lanka Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s official residence in Colombo this morning, forcing heavily armed troops to rescue him. Protesters then attempted to force their way into ‘Temple Trees,’ a two-story colonial-era building that serves as the Lankan Prime Minister’s home and where his family and he were taking refuge.
How did Sri Lankan forces get ex-President Rajapaksa out?
As security forces moved Rajapaksa and his family out of ‘Temple Trees,’ police fired tear gas and warning shots into the air to keep mobs at bay.
Protesters set fire to a military truck in an attempt to block the main gate and security forces from entering the compound.
“The former Prime Minister and his family were evacuated to safety by the army after a pre-dawn operation,” a security official told AFP. “There were at least ten petrol bombs thrown into the compound.”
The US embassy compound across the road was hit by some of the tear gas canisters fired by Sri Lankan forces, but no casualties were reported.
As the island nation grapples with its worst economic crisis in living memory, Sri Lanka saw its most violent protests in this week. According to the news agency PTI, at least eight people have died and over 200 have been injured in clashes with security forces so far.
One of the dead is Amarakeerthi Athukorala, a member of the ruling party who allegedly shot himself after killing two people, including a 27-year-old man.
The Rajapaksas’ ancestral home in the southern Hambantota district, as well as dozens of buildings belonging to his loyalists and others, were set on fire.
