Day after Lankans barge into President's home, Army chief appeals for peace

General Shavendra Silva issued a statement saying that "an opportunity has arisen to resolve the current crisis in a peaceful manner".

He requested Sri Lankans to support the Armed Forces and the police to ensure that peace is maintained in the country.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund said it was closely monitoring the ongoing developments on the island nation and hoped that the political crisis will be resolved soon.

The United States has also urged Sri Lanka's politicians to come forward and "work quickly" to achieve long-term solutions to address the people's discontent.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will resign next Wednesday, after months of protest against him amid an unprecedented economic crisis in the island nation.

The Speaker will become the President for 30 days during which Parliament will elect a new leader.

This comes after anti-government protesters set Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's house on fire on Saturday evening amid a deepening crisis in the island nation.

In videos, the angry protesters could be seen damaging vehicles belonging to the Prime Minister. Despite tear gas being fired on the protesters to disperse, they entered the Prime Minister's house.

"Protesters have broken into the private residence of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and have set it on fire," the Lankan Prime Minister's Office said in a statement on Saturday evening.

Wickremesinghe, who was appointed as Prime Minister in May, has announced that he will resign from his post in order to ensure the continuation of the government and the safety of all the citizens.

"To ensure the continuation of the Government including the safety of all citizens I accept the best recommendation of the Party Leaders today, to make way for an All-Party Government. To facilitate this I will resign as Prime Minister," he tweeted after an emergency cabinet meeting.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled his official residence Saturday as thousands of anti-government protesters stormed into his residence demanding his resignation.

Amid the chaos and protests, a video has emerged of suitcases being loaded on a Sri Lanka Navy ship. According to local media, these suitcases belong to President Rajapaksa.

His whereabouts are still not known.

On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding the resignation of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa stormed the President's House here on Saturday after overcoming stiff resistance put up by security forces, leaving an unspecified number of people injured.

The protesters, mostly young and male, some of them waving Sri Lankan flags, broke the police barricades on Chatham Street in Colombo's Fort area and entered the President's House where Rajapaksa was not present, journalists at the site said.

Police used tear gas and water cannons and also opened fire in the air in a desperate bid to scatter the mass gathering but could not prevent the protesters from entering the President's House.

Some demonstrators scaled the boundary walls while others poured in through the main gate. They then briskly walked into the normally heavily-fortified house, all the time shouting anti-government slogans.

Saturday's action came a month after mass protests forced Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to quit and take shelter in a military camp in the eastern port city of Trincomalee.

The Rajapaksa brothers -- part of a large clan -- are widely blamed for Sri Lanka's worst economic crisis.

The nation of 22 million people is struggling under a severe foreign exchange shortage that has limited essential imports of fuel, food and medicine, plunging the country into the worst economic crisis in decades.