Thousands of protesters had earlier breached police barricades to storm the presidential palace in Colombo on Saturday, with Ranil Wickremesinghe announcing he would step down as prime minister shortly afterwards. The future of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa initially remained unclear, but as news of the fire at Mr Wickremesinghe’s private residence spread, Sri Lanka’s parliamentary speaker announced that the president had also agreed to step down – and intends to step down Wednesday. Clashes between protesters and police reportedly escalated outside the prime minister’s family home in the hours after the presidential palace was stormed, and footage broadcast by the BBC and Indian broadcaster NDTV showed flames and smoke billowing from the compound. Mr. Wickremesinghe’s office told The Associated Press that protesters forced their way into his home on Saturday night. It was not immediately clear if he was inside at the time of the attack. Mr Wickremesinghe uses his official residence only for official business and lives with his family in the home targeted by protesters, known as Fifth Lane, which was built by his father Esmond Wickremesinghe. Firefighters try to put out the fire at Ranil Wickremesinghe’s private home in Colombo (AP Photo/ Eranga Jayawardena) Mr Rajapaksa reportedly left the palace hours before it was overrun by protesters, who were filmed feasting in the palace kitchens and swimming in the pool. The president was taken to safety after protesters gathered outside the palace gates and is being protected by a military unit, a senior defense source told AFP. His current whereabouts are unknown and according to the BBC there are rumors that he is trying to leave the country “at any moment”. Mr Wickremesinghe – who was appointed by the President in May to a role he had served five times before without ever completing a full term – earlier said he would only step down when all parties agreed on a new government, angering crowds near his home demanding he resign immediately. “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 many issues to discuss with the IMF. So if this government goes, there should be another government,” Mr Wickremesinghe said. In a dramatic repeat of anti-government protests that began in March, people from across the island nation of 22 million boarded overcrowded buses and trains to descend on Colombo on Saturday to call on the president to step down. Sri Lankan police had tried to use tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowds, and a curfew was imposed on Friday night only to be lifted a few hours later. A defense official suggested the measure – which was branded illegal by lawyers and opposition politicians – simply “encouraged more people to take to the streets in defiance”. Sri Lanka is on the brink of bankruptcy as it endures its worst economic crisis since gaining independence from British rule in 1948. The country is suffering from a severe foreign exchange shortage, which pushed it into default on its foreign debts for the first time in history in May and has limited essential imports of fuel, food and medicine – causing devastating shortages of supplies for residents. Shortly after taking office, Mr Wickremesinghe warned that the country’s “broken” economy would “get worse before it gets better”, and the next month inflation hit 54.6%. While the country’s finances have taken a hit as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and the Easter 2019 bombings, many experts say the current economic meltdown is the result of mismanagement, including a lack of focus on exports, massive debt accumulation and big tax cuts. “It’s really quickly turning into a humanitarian crisis,” warned Scott Morris, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington. Additional reports from agencies
