Sri Lankan security forces raided and partially cleared a protest camp occupying government grounds in Colombo early on Friday, fuelling fears that President Ranil Wickremesinghe had launched a crackdown a day after being sworn in.

Media footage showed soldiers in riot gear and armed with assault rifles tearing down the camp, set up in April by protesters enraged by the country’s economic collapse and acute shortages of fuel, food and medicine.

Wickremesinghe was sworn in as President on Thursday after winning a parliamentary vote to succeed Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled to Singapore last week in the wake of massive public protests triggered by the country’s worst economic crisis in seven decades.

A representative of the UN, and western envoys urged the government to exercise restraint, warning that the use of force could further destabilise the island nation.

Earlier, the police said nine people had been arrested following the raid on the protest camp. “A joint operation involving the military, police and police special forces was launched in the early hours to recover the presidential secretariat from the protesters as they have no legal right to hold it,” police spokesperson Nalin Thalduwa told Reuters.

Angered by the pre-dawn raids, hundreds of protesters marched from the city’s main railway station towards the Galle Face protest site, where they were held back by military and riot police manning barricades.

“The very first day he used the armed forces — this is the face of Ranil Wickremesinghe,” said Rajeevkanth Rajkumar, a construction company executive who was among the protesters. “We don’t want any more innocent people to be injured. But we will go to that place (the protest site) at any cost.”

Hundreds of security personnel surrounded the “Gota Go Gama” protest camp, mockingly named after Rajapaksa, after midnight and then began to tear down tents in front of the secretariat, according to protest organisers.

Security forces appeared to have taken control of the entire secretariat, which was earlier this month seized by protesters.

Protest organiser Chameera Dedduwage told Reuters they had planned to hand over the presidential secretariat to government authorities on Friday afternoon. The police said they had no information on that.

At least 50 protesters were injured in the clashes, the organisers said, including some journalists who were beaten by security forces. Hospital sources said two were hospitalised. “They beat us really cruelly,” said Buddhika Abeyrathne, 34, a protester. Reuters