Thousands of people queued for cooking gas and petrol in Sri Lanka’s commercial capital on Friday and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe warned of a food shortage as the island nation battles a devastating economic crisis.

Lines formed in many parts of Colombo, a city of around 900,000 people, as residents tried to stock up on fuel, which is mostly imported and is in extremely short supply with the government running out of foreign exchange.

“Only about 200 cylinders were delivered, even though there were about 500 people,” said Mohammad Shazly, a part-time chauffeur in a queue for the third day in the hope of procuring cooking gas for his family of five. Hundreds of others were in line, with empty cylinders by their side.

“Without gas, without kerosene oil, we can’t do anything,” Shazly said. “Last option what? Without food we are going to die. That will happen hundred per cent.”

Tourism-dependent Sri Lanka, where India and China jostle for influence, is facing a dire shortage of foreign exchange, fuel and medicines, and economic activity has slowed to a crawl.

Public transport is depleted and traffic is light as most people are staying at home because of the scarcity of petrol.

Wickremesinghe, warning also of a food crunch, vowed to buy enough fertiliser for the next planting season to boost productivity and meet the food demand of its 22 million population.

A decision in April last year by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to ban all chemical fertilisers drastically cut crop yields and although the government has reversed the ban, no substantial imports have yet taken place.

“While there may not be time to obtain fertiliser for this Yala (May-August) season, steps are being taken to ensure adequate stocks for the Maha (September-March) season,” the Prime Minister said in a message on Twitter late on Thursday.

“I sincerely urge everyone to accept the gravity of the ... situation.”

Japan, which has long-standing economic ties with the island, said it would provide an emergency grant of $3 million for medicine and food, its foreign ministry said.

When a truck arrived at a cooking gas distribution centre with fresh supplies, soldiers with automatic rifles guarded the vehicle while people in the queue applauded.

State-run Litro Gas is hoping to start distributing 80,000 cylinders a day by Saturday but has to scramble to fill an estimated 3.5 million cylinder shortage in the market, chairman Vijitha Herath said.