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The Associated Press

Protesters in Sri Lanka brave tear gas and storm prime minister's office

Police use tear gas as Sri Lankan protesters storm prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe 's office in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, July 13, 2022. (Rafiq Maqbool/AP)

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka's president fled the country early Wednesday, slipping away only hours before he promised to resign under pressure from protesters angry over a devastating economic crisis. But crowds quickly trained their ire on the prime minster, storming his office and demanding he also go.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his wife left aboard a Sri Lankan Air Force plane bound for the Maldives, the air force said in a statement. That brought little relief to the island nation gripped for months by an economic disaster that has triggered severe shortages of food and fuel — and now is beset by political chaos.

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