Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa emailed a letter of resignation to Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena on Thursday, a spokesperson of the Speaker said, hours after fleeing to Singapore following mass protests over an economic meltdown.

The announcement triggered jubilation in the commercial capital Colombo where protesters massed outside the presidential secretariat, defying a city-wide curfew.

Crowds set off firecrackers, shouted slogans and danced ecstatically at the Gota Go Gama protest site, named mockingly after Rajapaksa's first name. Here's the full report.