Gotabaya quits from Singapore via email

Colombo: Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa emailed a letter of resignation to the speaker of the country’s parliament late on Thursday, Reuters news agency reported, quoting a source familiar with the matter. It was not immediately clear if the letter, sent shortly after Rajapaksa arrived in Singapore, would be accepted in email form, the source said. Rajapaksa, who fled to the Maldives on Wednesday to escape a popular uprising over his family's role in a crippling economic crisis, headed on to Singapore on a Saudi Arabian airline flight.

Singapore's foreign ministry said Rajapaksa had entered the country on a private visit, and had not sought or been granted asylum. His decision on Wednesday to make his ally Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe the acting president triggered more protests, with demonstrators storming parliament and the premier's office demanding that he quit too.

The government imposed a curfew in Colombo from noon on Thursday to early morning on Friday in a bid to prevent further unrest. Local media showed armoured vehicles with soldiers atop patrolling the city's streets.