UPDATE: PM Wickremesinghe asks parliament's speaker to nominate a new prime minister acceptable to both the government and opposition as a nationwide curfew is imposed in Sri Lanka amid protests
The declaration of both a nationwide state of emergency and a curfew failed to disperse protesters, who poured into PM Ranil Wickremesinghe's office.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his wife left aboard an air force plane bound for the Maldives on Wednesday, making his prime minister the acting president in his absence. Thousands of protesters who wanted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to go rallied outside his office compound and some scaled the walls. Dozens could later be seen inside the office or standing on a rooftop terrace waving Sri Lanka's flag.
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