Sri Lankan Parliamentary Speaker has said President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has agreed to resign on July 13.
The announcement comes late in the day that saw several thousands of Sri Lankan take to streets of national capital Colombo and storming of the President's House, the Presidential Secretariat, and the burning of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's house.
Earlier on Saturday, thousands of protesters broke the barricades at Gotabaya's residence and stormed it. They have since occupied it and the Presidential Secretariat. Later in the evening, protesters also set Wickremesinghe's private residence in Colombo on fire.
The arson at Wickremesinghe's house was reported hours after he announced he would resign in favour of an all-party government.
It has been reported that Gotabaya had anticipated the massive protests of Saturday and that's why he left his residence on Friday. His current whereabouts are unknown.
Protesters have been demanding resignations of Wickremesinghe and Gotabaya for their failure to improve the Sri Lankan financial crisis, which is the worst in the country's history. Prices have risen in recent months and the country has been suffering from grave shortages of essentials like cooking gas, vehicular fuel, edibles, and thermal fuel to produce electricity.
Earlier, protesters demanded and eventually got the resignation of the then-Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gotabaya's brother.
This is a developing story. It will be updated as and when details emerge.
(With PTI inputs)
