Embattled prime minister resigns amid mass protests

Thousands of troops and police enforced a curfew after five people were killed in the worst violence in weeks of protests over an unprecedented economic crisis.

Nearly 200 people were wounded on Monday as prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned, but that did little to calm public anger.

Rajapaksa had to be rescued in a pre-dawn military operation on Tuesday after thousands of antigovernment protesters stormed his official residence in Colombo overnight, with police firing teargas and warning shots to keep back the crowd. Protesters who forced their way into the residence then attempted to storm the main two-storey building where Rajapaksa was holed up with his immediate family.