Hundreds of Sri Lankan soldiers and police raided the main anti-government protest camp in the country’s capital early Friday and began tearing down tents of unarmed activists, an AFP reporter said.

Security forces swooped in on the protesters blocking the Presidential Secretariat in the capital hours before they were due to vacate the area.

Security personnel armed with batons began removing barricades set up by protesters blocking the main gate of the Presidential Secretariat they had partly overrun earlier this month.

Activists had announced that they planned to vacate the area by Friday afternoon, after a cabinet was sworn in by new the president, Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Witnesses saw soldiers surrounding the sea-front office and removing several temporary structures set up in the area to provide logistics for thousands of anti-government protesters since April.