The PM's meeting, then the mob. 'Turning point' in Sri Lankan crisis

Mahinda Rajapaksa stepped down on Tuesday and his brother, the president, gave sweeping powers to the police for enforcing order.

On Monday morning, hundreds of supporters gathered at the prime minister's official residence in Sri Lanka's commercial capital of Colombo where they urged Mahinda Rajapaksa not to resign.

Arguably the country's most powerful man, and scion of the dynasty to which his younger brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, also belongs, was contemplating the move to pave the way for an interim government amid economic and social turmoil.

Less than an hour later, some of the same crowd rampaged through the city wielding iron bars and beating anti-government protesters, according to Reuters witnesses, sparking the deadliest day of violence in months of demonstrations.

If the