Sri Lanka parliament speaker warns crisis risks starvation

Sri Lanka's crippling economic crisis risks starvation across the island nation of 22 million while acute shortages and blackouts will get worse, the speaker of parliament warned Wednesday.

Scarce supplies of food and fuel, along with record inflation and blackouts, have inflicted widespread misery in the country's most painful downturn since independence from Britain in 1948.

Public anger is at a fever pitch, with crowds attempting to storm the homes of several government figures -- including President Gotabaya Rajapaksa -- and large demonstrations elsewhere.

Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana told legislators that more hardships were to come.