Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has informed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe that he will resign, the prime minister's office said on Monday, after tens of thousands of protesters stormed their official residences on Saturday, setting fire to one of the buildings in a rage over the nation's severe economic crisis. 

That day, the prime minister said he will leave office once a new government is in place, and hours later the speaker of Parliament said Rajapaksa would step down Wednesday.

Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe were not in their residences when the protesters surged into the buildings and have not been seen in public since Friday.

Leaders of the protest movement have said that crowds would remain at the residences of the president and the prime minister in Colombo until they quit office.

Colombo, Sri Lanka's largest city, was calm on Monday as hundreds of people strolled into the president's secretariat and residence and toured the colonial-era buildings. Police made no attempt to stop anyone.

According to local media, the country is set to hold a special meeting of political party leaders at 2 p.m. on Monday to discuss the appointment of a new president and the formation of a new government, with Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena chairing the meeting.

Local media Sri Lanka the Daily Mirror also reported on Monday that the country will hold presidential and parliamentary elections before March next year, citing senior political sources.

The country barely has any dollars left to import fuel, which has been severely rationed, and long lines have formed in front of shops selling cooking gas. Headline inflation in the country of 22 million hit 54.6 percent last month, and the central bank has warned that it could rise to 70 percent in the coming months.

(With input from Reuters, AP)

(Cover: Protesters shout slogans against Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa near the Presidential Secretariat, amid the country's economic crisis in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 10, 2022. /Reuters)