Colombo

Speaker of Sri Lanka's Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena on Monday clarified that Gotabaya Rajapaksa is still in the country, soon after reports emerged that President has left the island nation.

The Sri Lankan President, who announced his resignation on Saturday, was earlier said to have fled and was in a third country.

When asked further about the whereabouts of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Sri Lankan President, the speaker said that both of them are still in the country.

The development comes after thousands of people stormed into the President's House and the Prime Minister’s residence demanding their resignation on Saturday.

Earlier, on Saturday, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena announced in a press conference that the President will resign from his post on July 13.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe too has agreed to resign from his post.

Sri Lanka is suffering its worst economic crisis since gaining independence in 1948, which comes on the heels of successive waves of COVID-19, threatening to undo years of development progress.

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With no fuel, the island nation is in a virtual lockdown for the past fortnight. In May the country defaulted on its debt payment for the first time.