Sri Lanka Live Updates: Street Protests Grip Lanka As Economic Crisis Escalates, State Of Emergency Declared

Sri Lanka has declared a state of emergency giving sweeping powers to security forces. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa invoked the tough law  a day after hundreds tried to storm his house in anger over an unprecedented economic crisis.

The emergency was declared for “protection of public order and the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community,” he said in a proclamation.

The nation of 22 million is facing severe shortages of essentials, sharp price rises and crippling power cuts in its most painful downturn since independence from Britain in 1948.