Rajapaksa left his official residence at about 10:00 a.m. this morning, his secretary Gamini Senarath said over the phone, adding that he could not contact the leader currently and didn’t know his whereabouts. Earlier, French news agency Agence France-Presse cited an unidentified defense official as saying that Rajapaksa was escorted to safety away from the compound. 

Civil-rights activists, religious leaders and artists were among thousands from across the South Asian island who gathered Saturday at an oceanfront protest site near the presidential residence in the capital, Colombo.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has called an emergency meeting of party leaders to discuss the current situation, a text message from his office said.

Ahead of the protest, Omalpe Sobitha, a senior Buddhist monk at one of the main monastic orders and an outspoken critic of the government, told reporters the crisis is not the result of famine or natural disaster but mis-governance.

Sri Lanka is in the worst tailspin of its independent history, with inflation seen hitting 70%. It has been facing shortages of everything from fuel to medicine for months, prompting protests that led to the resignations of all the Rajapaksa family members who were in the government, except for the president.