Image source, Getty Images

We're pausing our live coverage of the protests in Sri Lanka now, but we'll leave you with a roundup of what happened today:

• Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Sri Lanka after months of unrest over President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's handling of the country's economic crisis
• The island nation of 22 million people has been mired by lengthy blackouts, acute food and fuel shortages and surging inflation in its most painful downturn on record
• The parliament speaker says Mr Rajapaksa will step down on 13 July
• The private home of Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe in Colombo was under siege and set on fire just hours after protesters stormed the president's official residence in the nation's capital
• Wickramasinghe had earlier offered to resign and make way for an all-party unity government
• Both leaders have reportedly moved to secure locations
• At least 39 people, including two police officers, have so far been injured and hospitalised during the protests, hospital sources told Reuters

You can continue to follow the latest developments here.

Image source, Getty Images

Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said he will step down on 13 July following protests that shook the country today.

Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena says he was informed by the president of his intention to step down.

It comes after Rajapaksa's official residence was earlier stormed by protesters demanding his resignation after months of unrest over Sri Lanka's economic crisis.

The private home of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was later set on fire by protesters just hours after he said he would resign.

Bhavani Foneseka, a prominent human rights lawyer in Colombo, has expressed fears that the situation in Sri Lanka could become "deadly".

Speaking to the BBC she said there is a worry that there could be violence if people feel that their demands are not met and if the economic situation deteriorates further.

"It's a very, very uncertain time in Sri Lanka but also unprecedented," she said.

She stressed that a medical crisis was also facing the country.

"So it's a combination of reasons that could result in violence and violence that could lead to a very deadly situation so there is a very real danger that things could unravel," she added.

Her comments come as the home of Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been set on fire.

Thousands of protesters earlier stormed the residence of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in Colombo.

We're getting more detail now about the blaze at Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's house, which has been set alight by protesters.

His private home in Colombo is currently under siege and on fire, just hours after thousands of people occupied President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s official residence in Sri Lanka's capital.

“Protesters have broken into the private residence of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and have set it on fire,” an official from his office told the BBC.

We don't yet know the whereabouts of the PM at the time it was set alight.

Wickremesinghe lives with his family in the private home, known as Fifth Lane. He uses his official residence, called Temple Trees, for official business only.

Earlier, Wickremesinghe offered to resign and form an all-party government in the wake of massive public anger over an unprecedented economic crisis that has brought Sri Lanka to its knees.

The home of Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been set on fire.

Over the past hour the unrest between protesters and police has intensified outside Wickremesinghe's residence in the country's capital Colombo.

Image source, Getty Images

As the protests continue, the exact location of Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa remains unknown after he earlier fled his official residence.

The property in the country's capital Colombo has since been stormed by large crowds with protesters demanding his resignation.

Rajapaksa was escorted to safety after people gathered outside the gates, and he is being protected by a military unit, a top defence source told the AFP news agency.

But speaking to Newshour on the World Service from Colombo, the BBC'S Ranga Sirilal explained that no-one knows where the president is.

He said there are claims Rajapaksa is trying to flee Sri Lanka "at any moment" and that he is at the airport.

However, there are other reports that he's next to Colombo Port amid claims "that two ships that docked at the port were seen loading some travelling bags, suggesting that the president is going to leave".

What seems more certain, Sirilal added, is that it appears protesters won't leave the residence until the president resigns and there is some political stability.

Image source, Getty Images

The storming of the Sri Lankan president's official residence today comes after months of protests as the country literally ran out of foreign currency.

This meant basics, including fuel, food and medicine, have been increasingly scarce.

This led the Sri Lankan government to suspend sales of fuel to ordinary people until Sunday. It's thought to be the first country to do so since the 1970s.

Last weekend, officials said it had less than a week's worth of fuel left for essential services like buses, trains and medical vehicles.

Schools have closed and the country's 22 million residents have been asked to work from home.

Shortages of food and fuel have caused prices to soar. Inflation is now running at 30%.

There have been power cuts, and the lack of medicines has brought the health system to the verge of collapse.

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

An adviser to the former president of Sri Lanka has been sharing his insight into the current political situation after months of protests reached boiling point today.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has fled his official residence, and according to Ram Manikkalingam, is beyond the point of return.

Manikkalingam, an adviser to former President Chandrika Kumaratunga who served from 1994 to 2005, told the BBC the fate of President Rajapaksa was sealed.

"The president has to go," he said.

"In a way the president has already gone, it doesn't matter what he says - he's now become irrelevant.

"We hear he's hiding out at an army camp somewhere in the suburbs of Colombo and so I think this is a turning point and there is no return back."

He added that the Rajapaksas are "permanently finished", and it is hoped that "a corrupt class of politicians who took over the country" are also finished.

A crunch meeting of Sri Lankan party leaders has just finished, with the majority agreeing that the president and prime minister must resign immediately, Sri Lankan opposition MP Harsha de Silva says.

He tells BBC Newshour that the majority also agree that the speaker would act as president for a maximum of 30 days as per constitution.

They say an all-party interim government should be established and an election called as soon as possible.

Mr De Silva also says that parliament should elect, by secret ballot, someone to take over office of president for the remainder of the term until 24 November.

A famous seafront in the Sri Lankan business capital Colombo became a rallying point for thousands of anti-government protesters.

Men, women, Buddhist monks, priests and Muslims have been bringing placards, posters and banners to Galle Face expressing their anger against the rising cost of living and worsening shortage of basic supplies like fuel and food.

Ethnic fault lines run deep in Sri Lanka, but the protests unified the country.

The BBC’s Anbarasan Ethirajan and Neha Sharma spent a night with protestors at Galle Face.

Image source, EPA

In Sri Lanka right now, before you've woken up, you're losing.

Power cuts that run late into the sweltering nights steal hours of sleep as the fans cease; whole families waking up sapped from the months-long trial of shuffling their lives around daily blackouts after the country went bankrupt and essentially ran out of fuel.

There are long days to be lived; work days, errands to be run, daily essentials to be bought at twice the price they had been last month.

All this, you're starting a little more broken than you were last week.

Once you've had breakfast - eating less than you used to, or perhaps nothing at all - the battle to find transport beckons.

In the cities, fuel queues curl around entire suburbs like gargantuan metal pythons, growing longer and fatter by the day, choking roads and crushing livelihoods.

Read the full story by award-winning Sri Lankan author and journalist Andrew Fidel Fernando here.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

As political unrest in Sri Lanka intensifies, there is still a major cricket match taking place in the country.

Australia's cricket tour of Sri Lanka continued on Saturday in the city of Galle, which is around 124 km (77 miles) from the capital Colombo, where thousands of protesters have stormed the residence of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Pakistan's squad are also on the island for their upcoming series.

Sri Lankan cricket officials say there are no plans to change schedules, stating that the sport is unaffected by the political turmoil.

"The Australian Test is coming to an end and we are due to start the Pakistan series," a cricket board official told the AFP news agency.

"There is no opposition to having the games. In fact, fans are supportive and we have no reason to reschedule."

The Rajapaksa brothers, Mahinda and Gotabaya, were hailed by many as heroes for winning the civil war but are now reviled as villains.

It's a dramatic fall from grace for a family that has dominated Sri Lankan politics for more than a decade.

Mahinda Rajapaksa was once celebrated by the majority Sinhalese as a hero for bringing an end to nearly three decades of civil war when the Tamil Tiger rebels were crushed in 2009 during his first term as president.

His father was a parliamentarian and Mahinda gradually rose from opposition leader in parliament to prime minister in 2004.

Image source, AFP

When he became president a year later, he made Gotabaya the defence secretary.

It was a big career jump for the younger brother who was living a quiet life in the US after retiring from the Sri Lankan military. Gotabaya rose to prominence, earning a reputation for ruthlessness.

Soon, other brothers and relatives joined the government.

It was Mahinda, the family patriarch, who was instrumental in establishing the Rajapaksa empire.

Thousands of Sri Lankans took to the streets on Saturday, demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Angry and frustrated over a months-long shortage of fuel, medicines and even food, that is only growing worse, they began marching to Mr Rajapaksa's official residence.

Image source, EPA

Police used tear gas against the crowd to try to disperse them when they got close to the president's residence - but they were unable to stop many of them from entering.

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Soon footage emerged on social media of protesters inside the house - filling up corridors, taking a dip in the pool, checking out the bedrooms while taking selfies or live streaming what they were seeing.

Scenes of protesters filling the grand official residence have gone viral.

Image source, EPA

It's unlikely Mr Rajapaksa was in the building at the time as he was reported to have been staying elsewhere in recent months.

But security officials said he had been taken to a safe location. Where that is remains a secret.

Image source, EPA

When it was announced in May that Ranil Wickremesinghe would become prime minister for a sixth time, it was met with dismay and disbelief in Sri Lanka.

Wickremesinghe is seen as being close to the Rajapaksa family, and many thought he was chosen because he will be likely to guarantee their security.

He had never seen out a full term before.

Now he has made another premature exit, soon after protesters entered his official residence.

He was first elected to parliament in 1977 and quickly moved up the party ladder after Ranasinghe Pramadasa was elected president in 1989.

Wickremesinghe first served as PM from 1993 to 1994.

He narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when a bomb went off at a meeting he was addressing in the town of Eppawala.

Around the turn of the century he was a genuine contender for president but his star has since waned.

He was PM during the deadly Easter Sunday bombings in 2019, which killed at least 250 people.

He told the BBC he had been "out of the loop" when it came to intelligence warnings ahead of the attacks.

In the last election, his once ruling UNP managed to scrape together just one parliamentary seat, leaving him its sole representative in parliament.

There was widespread anger when he again became the PM two months ago.

It was not to be a case of sixth time lucky for the veteran politician.

Protesters have now entered the official residence of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has just agreed to resign.

Videos show protesters taking selfies on beds and sitting on furniture, while hundreds have been chanting "we say go now" and waving Sri Lankan flags in the main foyer of the house.

More on that statement from the prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe. He has informed party leaders that he is willing to resign from his post to make way for an all-party government, his office said a short while ago.

The PM has agreed to the opposition's proposed plan to ensure the safety of citizens, BBC Sinhala correspondent Ranga Sirilal reports.

Many will think Mr Wickremesinghe has little option but to step aside.

According to the PM's office, fuel distribution across the country is to be resumed this week - fuel shortages are at the root of the anger and disruption that have rocked the island for months. But previous such promises have not been met, and many Sri Lankans will be wary.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has agreed to resign, his office says, to make way for an all-party government.

It's been a tumultous day in Sri Lanka so far - events are moving fast. Here's a recap of the main developments:

• Thousands of protesters have stormed the residence of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the capital Colombo
• Months of mounting anger over the country's financial collapse boiled over. Huge crowds descended on the capital and police couldn't hold them back
• The whereabouts of the president are currently unclear, but defence officials say he was taken away to safety
• Prime Mnister Ranil Wickremesinghe, appointed only in May to help sort out the crisis, has summoned an emergency meeting of leaders of political parties, and wants parliament convened
• But there are calls for him to quit along with the president
• Latest reports say protesters are also now inside the PM's residence

This striking footage from local news agency NewsWire gives a bird's eye view of the moment protesters stormed President Gotabya Rajapaka's official residence in Colombo.