Angry protesters set fire to Sri Lanka PM’s private house

Colombo, July 9

Anti-government protesters on Saturday set fire to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's private residence in the heart of Colombo after his security attacked them.

The protesters, who marched to Colombo on Saturday morning demanding resignation of President Gotobaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, stormed the President's official residence, braving police, and later occupied the Prime Minister's official resident, the Temple Trees.

Later, the protesters marched to Wickremesinghe's private residence in Colombo 7 and surrounded it, demanding that he step down. However, the police's elite Special Task Force (STF) attacked the protesters and six journalists from a private television station.

Angered by the attack, the protesters had set fire to the house of Wickremesinghe who had left it with his wife.

"Protesters have broken into the private residence of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and have set it on fire," the PM's office announced.

At the party leaders meeting summoned by the Speaker to solve the current crisis, Wickremesinghe had refused to resign from his post. Later he announced that he would resign once an all-party government is formed and a political group proved its majority in the parliament.

--IANS