COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s bus and train networks were shut down, and businesses and industries were shuttered as part of a statewide strike calling for the government’s resignation as the island’s economic situation worsened.

Months of outages and severe shortages of food, gasoline, and medications have caused extensive devastation across the South Asian island country.

The government’s mishandling of the crisis, Sri Lanka’s worst since independence in 1948, has provoked ongoing rallies demanding that it stand down.

On Friday, millions of employees participated in a strike called by the country’s trade union movement, with all but one rail service cancelled.

Privately owned buses were taken off the road, while industrial employees marched outside their workplaces and black flags were flown around the country in protest of the administration.

“We can pinpoint the policy blunders of the president that led to this very sorry state of our economy,” trade union head Ravi Kumudesh remarked.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has declared he would not step down, despite mounting protests around the island, including a group that has been camped outside his oceanfront office for over a month.

On Thursday evening, after the assembly had adjourned for the day, police shot tear gas at hundreds of students attempting to attack the national parliament.

Sri Lanka’s economic crisis began when the coronavirus outbreak decimated tourism and remittance revenues.

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