Emergency Declared in Sri Lanka Again

Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Friday declared a state of emergency giving security forces sweeping powers for the second time in five weeks to deal with escalating anti-government protests.

A spokesman for the president said he invoked the tough laws to "ensure public order" after trade unions staged a nationwide strike demanding his resignation over a worsening economic crisis.

The president's move comes on a day when the student activists warned to lay siege to the Lankan parliament.

Rajapaksa's decision was to ensure public security and maintain essential services so as to ensure a smooth functioning of the country, the presidential media division said.

Months of blackouts and acute shortages of food, fuel and pharmaceuticals have caused widespread suffering across the island nation of 22 million people.

Public anger has sparked sustained protests demanding the government's resignation over its mismanagement of the crisis, Sri Lanka's worst since independence in 1948.

Thousands of student protesters had been camped on the road leading to the legislature, which is on a man-made island on a lake in the capital Colombo, since Thursday.

Officers fired a barrage of tear gas followed by water cannon from two trucks, but the crowd quickly reassembled behind police barricades set up to block access to the parliament.