Lankan Prez on a fleeing spree: Maldvies-Singapore-Saudi

Colombo, July 14: Gotabaya Rajapaksa the President of Sri Lanka has led Maldives for Singapore from where he would head to Saudi Arabia.

Rajapaksa despite being advised by many in the international community not to leave the nation fled with his family in the dead of the night on Tuesday. At Male, he was received by Speaker Mohammad Nasheed who himself had fled to Sri Lanka in 2012.

The Associated Press reported that the 73 year old leader boarded a Saudi Airlines plane on Wednesday that will take him to Singapore and then to Jeddah.

Rajapaksa had announced that he would step down as President and the decision came after protesters stormed his presidential palace on Saturday. They demanded that he and prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe step down.

The protesters have said that they will vacate the government buildings seized by them during the protests. We are peacefully withdrawing from the Presidential Palace, , the Presidential Secretariat and the Prime Minister's Office with immediate effect, but will continue our struggle, a spokesperson said.