Sri Lankan security forces regained control over the country’s presidential secretariat building in Colombo, the nation’s capital, after cracking down on protesters in the area, seriously injuring at least ten people and injuring hundreds of others.

Sri Lankan soldiers also demolished protest encampments at the “GotaGoGama” protest site and arrested several of the movement’s high-profile leaders. Following the crackdown, security forces cordoned off the former protest site, forbidding the public from entry.

The assault on the protesters came hours after they voluntarily withdrew from a protest camp adjacent to the prime minister’s residence. Prior to the crackdown, protest leaders had also announced their intention to withdraw from the secretariat area by Friday.

“After the announcement that the protesters were planning to handover [sic] the Presidential Secretariat to the [government] on 22nd July at 2.00pm [sic], in the early hours of the 22nd [...] just after 1.00am [sic] large numbers of armed forces cordoned off GotaGoGama from all sides and started attacking the unarmed protesters,” a statement released by the protest leaders read, according to Al Jazeera. “The IT Center, the Disabled Soldiers Tent, the Community Kitchen that fed so many hundreds of people every day for free, the SYU Tent, the Hearing Impaired Tent, the Gate Zero Tent—these among others have been destroyed completely.”

The crackdown on Sri Lanka’s remaining protesters also came two days after the election of Ranil Wickremesinghe, the country’s former prime minister, to the presidency in an interim capacity by parliamentary vote. Wickremesinghe’s predecessor in office, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was forced from power after months of continuous protests after demonstrators stormed his official residence, prompting him to flee the country. Wickremesinghe, who had been prime minister at the time of Rajapaksa’s resignation and exile, also agreed to quit his position, but only after the parliament had formed a new government. As president, he is expected to appoint a new prime minister on Friday, who will then be tasked with forming a coalition government and appointing new members to the country’s cabinet.

The Sri Lanka Bar Association, the country’s national lawyers’ organization, offered criticism of the crackdown, with association president Saliya Peiris claiming that “unnecessary use of brute force will not help this country and its international image.”

Video footage of the crackdown from protesters’ livestreams circulated widely on social media after the incident.

Trevor Filseth is a current and foreign affairs writer for the National Interest.

Image: Reuters.