Sri Lankan president flees to the Maldives amid protests over economic crisis

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country on Wednesday, hours before he was due to step down after a people's uprising over a devastating economic crisis ended his family's grip on the island nation.

Later in the day, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe declared a state of emergency and a curfew with immediate effect as several hundred people demanding his resignation surrounded his office in Colombo. Police fired several rounds of tear gas and a military helicopter briefly circled overhead, but the protesters appeared undeterred.