Colombo: Sri Lankan Government issued shoot-at-sight orders on Tuesday to curb the violence incidents and riots by the protesters who were angry and fighting with the Government. The angry mob or protesters that has seen buildings and vehicles set ablaze a day after the island was rocked by deadly violence and rioting. Defence forces saved and shifted former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family members to the naval base, after protesters set fire to his residence.

According to the Defence Ministry, with thousands of security forces enforcing a curfew troops have been ordered to shoot on sight anyone looting public property or causing harm to life. Government supporters on Monday attacked with sticks and clubs, demonstrators in Colombo protesting peacefully for weeks over a dire economic crisis and demanding President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation. Mobs then retaliated across the country late into the night, torching dozens of homes of ruling-party politicians and trying to storm the Prime Minister’s official residence in Colombo.

Police said on Tuesday eight people had died, with some people defying the shoot-on-sight order to torch buildings and vehicles. A luxury hotel said to belong to a Rajapaksa relative was set on fire on Tuesday evening on the edge of the Sinharaja rainforest. Police shot into the air at two locations to disperse mobs trying to burn vehicles.

Crowd had attacked and set fire to a vehicle carrying Colombo’s most senior policeman. Officers fired warning shots and sent in reinforcements to rescue Senior Deputy Inspector-General Deshabandu Tennakoon, who was rushed to hospital but later released.