Protesters storm Bangladesh PM's palace after she flees

 

Cheering protesters stormed Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's palace on Monday after she fled, the culmination of more than a month of deadly anti-government protests.

Jubilant looking crowds waved flags, some dancing on top of a tank in the streets of Dhaka on Monday morning, before hundreds broke through the gates of Hasina's official residence.

Bangladesh's Channel 24 broadcast images of crowds running into the compound, waving to the camera as they celebrated.

A source close to Hasina, 76, had earlier told AFP she had left her palace for a "safer place".

Bangladesh's army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman would address the nation on Monday afternoon, a military spokesman told AFP without giving further details.

Before the protesters had stormed the compound, Hasina's son urged the country's security forces to block any takeover from her 15-year rule.

"Your duty is to keep our people safe and our country safe and to uphold the constitution," her son, US-based Sajeeb Wazed Joy, said in a post on Facebook.

"It means don't allow any unelected government to come in power for one minute, it is your duty."

Security forces had supported Hasina's government throughout the unrest, which began last month against civil service job quotas then escalated into wider calls for her to stand down.

But the protesters defied curfews and deadly force.

At least 94 people were killed on Sunday, including 14 police officers, in the deadliest day of the unrest.

Protesters and government supporters countrywide battled each other with sticks and knives, and security forces opened fire.