Video: Police Firing Before Lanka Protesters Barged Into President's Home

A video capturing the moments before thousands of protesters barged into President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's official residence in central Colombo's high-security Fort area on Saturday demanding his resignation has been widely shared on social media.

The island nation has been fighting a crippling economic crisis and fuel shortage, the worst since the country gained independence in 1948.

The viral video, which was reportedly taken moments before the President's official residence was broken into, shows protesters and the armed forces locked in a face-off.

Separated by what appears to be a white wall, the armed forces shot at a large crowd of protesters. The video showed the bullets from their guns puncture the wall that stood between the two as the protesters tried to protect themselves.

The anti-government protesters in Sri Lanka continued to occupy the residences of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe today, with videos and photographs of them making use of the presidential amenities going viral.  

Yesterday, thousands of protesters barged into the official residence of embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and demanded his resignation. While his current whereabouts remain unknown, he has informed Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena that he will step down on July 13.

Sri Lanka's inflation topped 50 per cent in June after two years of money printing and an attempted float botched with a surrender requirement which sent the rupee sliding to 360 to the US dollar from 200.