Videos: Sri Lankan protesters swim in President's pool; watch 3 men run with suitcases to navy ship as he flees

Chandigarh, July 9

Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled his official residence on Saturday as thousands of anti-government protesters barged into his residence demanding his resignation.

Videos have surfaced on the social media of suitcases being loaded on a Sri Lanka Navy ship.

Local media claimed that the suitcases were of President Rajapaksa.

Three men in a hurry carrying large suitcases to the ship are seen in the video.

“The Harbour Master at the Colombo Port said that a group boarded the SLNS Sindurala and SLNS Gajabahu and left the port,” News1 Channel reported.

Rajapaksa left the official residence on Friday as a safety precaution ahead of the planned weekend demonstration, two defence ministry sources said. Reuters could not immediately confirm the president’s whereabouts.

Footage broadcast live on social media showed hundreds of people walking through the presidential palace. Video footage showed some of them splashing in the swimming pool while others sat on a four-poster bed and sofas. Some could be seen emptying out a chest of drawers in images that were widely circulated on social media.

Hundreds milled about in the grounds of the colonial-era white-washed presidential residence, with no security officials in sight.

The crisis comes after Covid-19 hammered the tourism-reliant economy and slashed remittances from overseas workers.

It has been compounded by the build-up of hefty government debt, rising oil prices and a ban on the import of chemical fertilisers last year that devastated agriculture. The fertiliser ban was reversed in November.

However, many blame the country’s decline on economic mismanagement by Rajapaksa and there have been months of largely peaceful protests demanding his resignation. With inputs from Reuters