Outgoing Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa landed in Singapore on Thursday, flight tracking data showed, after fleeing mass protests over his country's economic meltdown, and troops patrolled the capital Colombo to enforce a curfew.
Rajapaksa, who fled to the Maldives on Wednesday to escape a popular uprising over his family's role in a crippling economic crisis, headed on to Singapore on a Saudi Arabian airline flight, according to a person familiar with the situation.
A passenger on the flight, who declined to be named, said that Rajapaksa was met by a group of security guards and was seen leaving the airport VIP area in a convoy of black vehicles.