COLOMBO — Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has left for Singapore from the Maldives on Thursday.

The Daily Mirror of Sri Lanka said that Rajapaksa who fled from the country amid economic and political crises is headed to Singapore along with wife and two security officials and Special forces of the Maldives Defence Force accompanied him to the flight.

Sri Lanka is in a serious political limbo as Rajapaksa didn't keep his words to resign on Wednesday.

Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said that he has not received Rajapaksa's resignation letter amid reports that he may send the same after reaching his final destination.

The fleeing president had appointed embattled Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as acting president and issued a Gazette notification assigning the PM to carry out all duties and responsibilities vested in the office of President.

However, the protesters and political leaders demanded Wickremesinghe to step down as PM and acting president.

The capital of the island nation witnessed encounters between the protesters and the security men resulting in the killing of one protester and injuring 85 others.

Meanwhile, the security forces blocked the road to stall protesters from entering the parliament complex.

Earlier, protesters occupied the President's House and several other government offices and set the PM's private residence in Colombo on fire.

Sri Lanka is passing through a tough economic crisis that has impacted the supply of essential foods, fuel and other basic commodities leading to several popular protests in the last few months. — Agencies