COLOMBO, May 10, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Heavily armed troops evacuated outgoing
Sri Lankan prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa from his official residence in
Colombo on Tuesday after thousands of protesters breached the main gate.

  Protesters who forced their way into the capital's "Temple Trees" residence
then attempted to storm the main two-storey building where Rajapaksa was
holed up with his immediate family.

  "After a pre-dawn operation, the former PM and his family were evacuated to
safety by the army," a top security official told AFP. "At least 10 petrol
bombs were thrown into the compound."

  Rajapaksa's evacuation to an undisclosed location followed a day of violent
protests in which five people, including a lawmaker, were killed and nearly
200 wounded.

  The security official said police kept up a barrage of tear gas and fired
warning shots in the air to hold back mobs at all three entrances to the
colonial-era building, a key symbol of state power.

  Dozens of homes of top Rajapaksa loyalists were torched elsewhere in the
curfew-bound country, which has been under a state of emergency since Friday.

  The emergency order from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the outgoing
premier's younger brother, gave sweeping powers to the military as protests
demanding the duo's resignation escalated over the country's worst-ever
economic crisis.

  Protestors and Sri Lankan religious leaders blamed the former prime
minister for instigating the family's supporters to attack unarmed protestors
on Monday, sparking retaliatory attacks.