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 grip on the island nation.

Later in the day, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe declared a state of emergency and a curfew with immediate effect as several hundred people demanding his resignation surrounded his office in Colombo. Police fired several rounds of tear gas and a military helicopter briefly circled overhead, but the protesters appeared undeterred.