Sri Lanka declared a state of emergency after the president fled the country early Wednesday morning.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa slipped away hours before promising to resign under pressure from protesters angry over a devastating economic crisis.
Mr Rajapaksa and his wife boarded a Sri Lankan Air Force aircraft bound for the Maldivesthe Air Force said in a statement, bringing little relief to the island nation that has been gripped for months by an economic disaster that has caused severe shortages of food and fuel and is now ravaged by political chaos.
Thousands of protesters demanding that Ranil Wickremesinghe, the prime minister, also resign, gathered outside his office building and some climbed the walls as the crowd roared in support, waved Sri Lankan flags and threw water bottles at those entering. As the protesters feared, Rajapaksa appointed his prime minister acting president in his absence, the parliament speaker said.
The prime minister, whose whereabouts were unclear, declared a state of emergency.
It comes as Sri Lanka’s anti-government protesters broke into the main state television station on Wednesday and briefly took over broadcasts, footage shows.
An unidentified man raided the studio of the Rupavahini network during a live program and ordered that only protest-related news be broadcast. The broadcast was cut short and replaced by a recorded programme.