Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigns and flees country

Bangladesh's long-serving Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, resigned and fled the country on Monday, after protesters defied a military curfew and stormed her official residence.

Hasina, who had been in power for 15 years, fled the capital Dhaka along with her sister by a helicopter to India, the daily newspaper Prothom Alo reported, after weeks of violent crack downs on protesters left nearly 300 people dead.

Reuters reported that the two had left to seek "safe shelter" away from Hasina's official residence.

There was no immediate public statement from Hasina's office, but army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman said in a televised address that the prime minister had resigned and the army was in talks with the president to form an interim government.

Her resignation came a day after at least 95 people were killed and hundreds more wounded after a violent crackdown on protesters.

Nationwide protests began a month ago, after a Bangladesh High Court verdict that was set to reintroduce a quota system in the country, reserving 30 percent of government jobs for the descendants of veterans who fought in the country's independence war in 1971. 

Mass protests against the quota system, led by students who believed the move to be anti-meritocratic, were violently cracked down on by authorities for several weeks. More than 200 protesters were killed last month. 

The deaths triggered further protests demanding accountability and the removal of Hasina, who has led the country since 2009. She had a previous stint as premier, between 1996 and 2001.

Hasina's party Awami League, which was born out of Bangladesh's independence movement, has strengthened its grip on power over the past decade and a half. The party won four successive general elections, the most recent of which, in January, was boycotted by the opposition and had a markedly low turnout.

The 76-year-old's rule was marred by mass arrests of political opponents, the silencing of dissenting voices and accusations of human rights abuses. 

Hasina is the daughter of Shiekh Mujibur Rahman, leader of Bangladesh's independence movement in the 1970s and 'father of the nation'.

Video footage on Monday showed protesters in Dhaka climbing on top of a large statue of the founding father and chiselling away at the head with an axe.