Protesters overran President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's palace over the weekend, forcing him to flee to the Maldives on Wednesday, when activists also stormed the office of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Rajapaksa had promised to resign on Wednesday, but there was no announcement he had done so.

The premier, whom Rajapaksa named as acting president in his absence, had demanded the evacuation of state buildings and instructed security forces to do "what is necessary to restore order".

"We are peacefully withdrawing from the Presidential Palace, the Presidential Secretariat and the Prime Minister's Office with immediate effect, but will continue our struggle," a spokeswoman for the protesters said.

A top Buddhist monk supporting the campaign had earlier called for the more than 200-year-old presidential palace to be handed back to authorities and ensure its valuable art and artifacts were preserved.

"This building is a national treasure and it should be protected," monk Omalpe Sobitha told reporters. "There must be a proper audit and the property given back to the state."

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