Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has told the military to "do whatever is necessary to restore order" after protesters stormed his office
Wickremesinghe has been appointed acting president by outgoing leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa and has declared a state of emergency in the country
But he has asked parliament’s Speaker to nominate a new prime minister who is "acceptable to both the government and opposition"
President Rajapaksa fled overnight on a military jet - accompanied by his wife - days after demonstrators overran his residence
He has pledged to stand down on Wednesday amid mass protests over the island's worst economic crisis in decades
For months people have been struggling with daily power cuts and shortages of basics like fuel, food and medicines
Thousands have taken to the streets in anger in recent weeks, with many blaming the Rajapaksa family and their government for the situation
We're pausing our live coverage of Sri Lanka's political and economic crisis.
You can read more about what's happening here.
Today's writers were Frances Mao, Zubaidah AbdulJalil, Aoife Walsh, Malu Cursino, Laura Gozzi and Marie Jackson.
Our editors were Yvette Tan, Simon Fraser, Andrew Humphrey, Alex Therrien and Chris Giles.
Image source, Getty ImagesThousands stormed the prime minister's offices in protest
It's been an eventful day in Sri Lanka – here's a summary of the key developments:
Anbarasan Ethirajan
BBC News, Colombo
Image source, AFPGotabaya Rajapaksa (left) and his brother Mahinda
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country in the early hours of Wednesday - a humiliating exit for a man whose family had been in power for nearly two decades.
Days before, hundreds of protesters had stormed his official residence, demanding that he resign over Sri Lanka's economic crisis, which has seen no respite in months.
Sharply rising prices had set off mass protests in April, and the growing anger forced Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa - the departing president's elder brother - out of power in May.
How did the Rajapaksas, once hailed by many Sri Lankans as heroes, come to be reviled as leaders?
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.
He was compared to Sinhala Buddhist kings at victory parades and mass public events.
"He was the most popular Sinhala Buddhist leader in post-independence Sri Lanka. Some even hailed him as Emperor Mahinda," says veteran political analyst Kusal Perera.
Read the full story here.
As we've been reporting, Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had said he would resign today following mass protests over the country's economic crisis that led to his official residence being stormed.
There's now just a short time left for him to meet his pledge to step down on Wednesday.
Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives on a military jet with his wife and two security officials overnight.
The man he appointed to take over as Sri Lanka's president on an acting basis, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, has been facing a chaotic situation after thousands of protesters stormed his offices demanding the immediate resignations of him and Rajapaksa.
Wickremesinghe has ordered the police and the military to do whatever is necessary to restore order.
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has fled to the Maldives, bringing to an apparent end his family's near two-decade dominance of the country after mass demonstrations over the island's economic crisis.
Protests came to a head last weekend when hundreds of thousands of people took over key government buildings in Colombo, including the president's official residence.
But Rajapaksa’s decision to leave his ally Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in charge as acting president triggered more demonstrations, with protesters storming the PM's office demanding that he go too.
Wickremesinghe, whose private residence in Colombo was set ablaze on Saturday, has asked parliament’s Speaker to nominate a new prime minister "who is acceptable to both the government and opposition".
Many protesters had said they would continue their demonstrations until both Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe have resigned from government.
Image source, .
Image source, ReutersPolice tried to stop the break-in with tear gas
Our colleague Tessa Wong has been closely following the developments of a day that saw protesters break in to the prime minister's office after their president fled the country.
Thousands began streaming towards the prime minister's compound. Above their heads, a military helicopter flew low passes, prompting howls of anger and middle fingers from the crowd.
Angry protesters were attempting to break into the grounds of the compound, as rows of poker-faced soldiers and riot police lining the walls looked on. Occasionally a canister of tear gas would be fired at the crowd, but it did little to deter them.
Protesters climbed up on the black gates to the compound and started rocking them back and forth to tear them off their hinges. The metallic thumps echoed down the avenue to cheers, which only intensified when protesters succeeded in ripping the gates down. They were met by a wall of soldiers.
This appeared to unnerve the military. Suddenly the crowd was pelted with a volley of tear gas canisters shot from inside the compound. The avenue was wreathed in smoke. Protesters screamed in defiance, and began picking up the canisters with their bare hands or traffic cones and hurling them back into the compound.
Read more from Tessa here.
Image source, ReutersRanil Wickremesinghe has suddenly been thrust from prime minister to the country's acting president, but who is he?
A lawyer by profession, Wickremesinghe comes from an affluent family of politicians and businessmen.
He was elected to parliament in 1977 and quickly moved up the party ladder, first serving as prime minister from 1993 to 1994.
In 1994, he became leader of the United National Party (UNP)when Gamini Dissanayake was killed by suspected rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. He himself narrowly escaped an assassination attempt.
Wickremesinghe improved his party's image by appointing a disciplinary commission to get rid of corrupt party members - and tried to improve his own image with new haircuts.
Around the turn of the century, he was considered a contender to be president, but his star waned.
He was prime minister in 2019 when at least 250 people were killed in the deadly Easter Sunday bombings. He blamed being "out of the loop" on intelligence warnings.
In the last election, his once ruling UNP scraped just one parliamentary seat, meaning he was its sole representative in parliament - and fuelling opponents' claims that he lacked legitimacy for office.
Read more about Wickremesinghe here.
Acting President and PM Ranil Wickremesinghe has announced an islandwide curfew, to last until 05:00 local time (12:30 BST).
A statement published by the government, external said that the PM considers the measure "necessary to maintain public order".
Sri Lanka’s acting president and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has asked parliament’s Speaker to nominate a new prime minister, his media team has said.
Mr Wickremesinghe asked for the new PM to be someone who is "acceptable to both the government and opposition", according to a statement.
Protesters, angered by the country's severe economic crisis, have sought the ousting of both President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Mr Wickremesinghe. The former fled abroad overnight before naming the latter to act in his stead, but he has yet to formally resign.
Anbarasan Ethirajan
Reporting from Colombo
Sri Lanka is in danger of sliding into more chaos - and even anarchy.
For the second time in less than a week protesters broke into a highly-secure government building - this time the office of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
He is now the country’s acting leader after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives. But protesters want Wickremesinghe to step down as well and see him as someone close to the Rajapaksa family.
It is not clear yet whether President Rajapaksa has sent his resignation letter - it's been promised today. The Speaker of parliament says MPs will vote to choose a new president on 20 July. But Rajapaksa’s party, the Sri Lanka People’s Front, has a sizeable majority in parliament.
If Wickremesinghe is once again elected with the support of MPs from the governing party, then protests are likely to continue.
Protesters are now getting used to storming government buildings to put pressure on political leaders and security forces have not fully been resisting them so far.
If Wickremesinghe uses force to disperse protesters, it’s going to ignite more tensions. That will also pit the security forces against the protesters.
Senior military leaders maintain that they will abide by the constitution. But things could get ugly if no compromise is reached soon.
We're hearing from opposition politicians that the official letter of resignation from outgoing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa may not be a long way off now.
Harsha de Silva, a representative of the SJB party, has told BBC's Newshour that fellow opposition party leaders met the Sri Lankan Speaker of parliament earlier today.
The Speaker told them the letter had still not been received but he "would receive it before midnight", Sri Lankan time. That's 19:30 BST.
De Silva described the unanimous demand of opposition party leaders for the prime minister to step down, and said if that were not to happen, then the president "should dismiss him before he resigns".
In the meeting, De Silva called for the Speaker to take on the office of president to allow for a peaceful transition of power.
Image source, Dhiyares/The Maldives JournalSri Lankan nationals living in the Maldives have held protests urging the Maldivian government to stop providing a haven to the fleeing Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Protesters carrying flags and placards criticised the country for allowing the outgoing leader to stay there.
A Maldivian newspaper said the foreign ministry had not commented on Rajapaksa's arrival, and that the issue was polarising the local population.
A source told the BBC that Rajapaksa will not remain in the Maldives and intends to travel on to a third country.
The Bar Association of Sri Lanka has urged political leaders and protesters to calm tensions in the crisis-hit country.
The body, which represents the legal profession in Sri Lanka, said it was "deeply disturbed" at protesters' occupation of the prime minister's offices and asked for them to be returned to the authorities.
In a statement to the media, its president Saliya Pieris called on the Speaker, the PM and all political leaders and citizens to "understand the fragile situation of the nation" and act with "a sense of sacrifice in the best interests of the country".
He also urged protesters to remain calm and leave room for the "peaceful transition of power" which leaders have promised.
Sri Lanka's outgoing leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country to the Maldives overnight with his wife and two security officials.
Sri Lanka has always had close relations with its island chain neighbour in the Indian Ocean – the Maldives is just a 90-minute flight away.
And both nations have maintained positive diplomatic and economic relations since their independence from the British Empire. For example, Maldives’ army is trained by Sri Lanka's military.
But the Rajapaksa family in particular have strong ties to the Maldives, and are friendly with the island’s former president and current parliamentary speaker, Mohamed Nasheed.
Some local media reported that Nasheed was waiting on the tarmac at Male airport overnight to receive President Rajapaksa.
There have also been reports that the Rajapaksas have family homes in the Maldives and other assets based there.
Our World Service colleagues have been hearing from Harini Amarasuriya, an opposition MP for the National People's Power party.
Speaking from Sri Lanka's capital Colombo, she says her party are standing with the people, the protesters, because their demands for resignations of the prime minister and the president are fair.
Without their resignations, she tells BBC's Newshour, people will not get off the streets, adding that a meeting of party leaders is currently taking place.
Leaders have to start understanding the seriousness of the people's movement, she says.
"This is not some potty little protest movement. People have been protesting for months and been really committed to this whole movement.
"Leaders have to heed the voices of the people and step down," she says.
Watch the moment protesters surged into the prime minister's office
Earlier this morning protesters breached a security cordon protecting the the prime minister's office in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka.
For hours the demonstrators were in a tense standoff with police, who fired tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd and keep them out of the building.
But after several attempts the crowd managed to tear down parts of the gate and climb into the grounds.
As we've been reporting, Sri Lanka's president Gotabaya Rajapaksa has fled the country and said he will step down after months of protests over soaring prices and a lack of food and fuel.
The country's foreign currency reserves have virtually run dry, meaning it doesn't have enough funds available to buy goods from other countries.
In May, Sri Lanka failed to make a payment on its foreign debt for the first time in its history.
The government blames the Covid pandemic, which affected Sri Lanka's tourist trade - one of its biggest foreign currency earners.
It also says tourists were frightened off by a series of deadly bomb attacks in 2019.
However, many experts blame economic mismanagement.
Image source, .
Image source, ReutersSri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives overnight following mass protests over the island's economic crisis.
He arrived in Male at around 03:00 local time (22:00 GMT), the BBC understands. Rajapaksa, his wife and two bodyguards took a military aircraft with him, sources told AFP.
It is thought Rajapaksa, who enjoys immunity from prosecution while he is president, fled to the Maldives to avoid the possibility of arrest by the new government.
He is now believed to be travelling to a third country. It is not yet clear where exactly he is going to, but there are rumours it could be Singapore or Dubai.
In his absence, he has appointed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, an ally of his, as acting president.
Rajapaksa had been in hiding after protesters captured his office and home on Saturday. He has pledged to resign today.
While it hasn't happened yet, the parliamentary Speaker, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, said earlier that Rajapaksa plans to hand over his resignation letter today.
It will bring an end to the rule of the Rajapaksa family that has dominated politics in Sri Lanka for the last two decades.
His brother, former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, has also fled Sri Lanka and is said to be heading to the US.
Sri Lanka's defence chief has called for calm and urged the public to co-operate to maintain law and order amid the continuing unrest in the country.
In a video address, General Shavendra Silva said he had asked the Speaker of parliament to call for party leaders to meet to "decide the way forward till a new president is sworn in and notify us and the public by this evening".
He also said that the armed forces and the police would abide by the constitution.
But the situation in the country is volatile. Armed police earlier fired tear gas at the crowd storming the PM's office, the latest key public building to be occupied by protesters.
Many people wonder if the security forces would keep on the sidelines if things really get out of control. At this time, Sri Lanka is in uncharted territory.
Welcome - here is a recap of the day’s events in Sri Lanka, where it's approaching 18:00.