Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, as the Acting President, has ordered to impose curfew in the Western Province with immediate effect and to impose emergency law island-wide, the Prime Minister’s Office said. 

PM Wickremesinghe has also ordered the security forces to arrest those engaging in unruly behaviour and to take into custody the vehicles they travel in, the PM’s Office said in a statement.

The move came as thousands of angry protesters gathered outside the PM’s office, and several other locations in Colombo this morning.

“Since the president is out of the country, an emergency has been declared to deal with the situation in the country,” Dinouk Colombage, spokesman for Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, told AFP.

Thousands of demonstrators had mobbed the premier’s office, prompting police to fire tear gas to hold them back from overrunning the compound.

“There are ongoing protests outside the prime minister’s office in Colombo and we need the curfew to contain the situation,” a senior police officer told AFP.

Asked how Mr. Wickremesinghe could invoke “powers of an acting President” when Mr. Gotabaya is still in office, PM’s spokesman Dinouk Colombage told The Hindu: “The legal explanation will follow. We want to get the situation under control first.”

-With inputs from agencies