Sri Lanka’s under-fire president has withdrawn a controversial state of emergency following a day of political drama and further protests.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa invoked the law, which allows the arrest of suspects without warrants on the 1^st of April after protests outside his house.

But he lifted the state of emergency on Tuesday in an apparent concession to angry citizens.

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The heavily import-reliant South Asian nation no longer has enough dollar reserves to buy essential items like food, fuel to power vehicles or even generate electricity.

Thousands of people have come out on to the roads over the last few days, demanding the president resign for what they call his mishandling of the crisis.

His entire cabinet quit on Sunday apart from his brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The president then called on the opposition to help him form a national unity government but they refused.

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