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 powerful grip on the island nation.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe declared a state of emergency as several hundred people surrounded his office in Colombo trying to breach the compound past police in riot gear, climbing the fences. Police fired several rounds of teargas and a military helicopter circled overhead.

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