President Gotabaya Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka has been declared missing as thousands of protesters stormed his official residence in Sri Lanka.
On Saturday, thousands of protesters had stormed his State home as they continued their demand for his resignation.
The President was hurriedly transported to the Army headquarters hours before the invasion.
Read Also: More Crisis As Sri Lanka’s Inflation Gallops Beyond 50%
Sri Lankan military personnel had also joined the demonstrators who broke police barricades and entered. Dozens, including two police officers, are injured and receiving treatment, the National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL) confirmed.
The citizens have been complaining about poverty, cost of living and Rajapaksa’s handling of the economic crisis.
The people are struggling to get jobs, pay rent, buy food, medicine, petroleum products, among others.
Videos and photos showing protesters breaking in and swimming in the President’s house have emerged. Some were cooking food in the kitchen as others moved about for a tour of the presidential residence.
With a population of 22 million, the South Asian nation faces its worst financial crisis in decades. At least 16 members of parliament from Rajapaksa’s party Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna have asked him to resign.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has summoned an emergency meeting of party leaders.
It had been previously reported that Sri Lanka’s inflation hit a ninth consecutive record in June, official data showed Friday, rising to 54.6 percent a day after the IMF asked the bankrupt nation to rein in galloping prices and corruption.
According to the department of census and statistics, it was the first time the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) grew above the psychologically significant 50% mark.
The results were released a few hours after the International Monetary Fund advised Sri Lanka to stop its spiralling inflation and deal with corruption in order to save its struggling economy from being destroyed by a currency crisis.
The IMF ended 10 days of in-person discussions with Sri Lankan authorities in Colombo on Thursday following the country’s request for a possible bailout.
The CCPI has been setting new monthly highs since October when year-on-year inflation stood at just 7.6 percent. In May it reached 39.1 percent.