Protesters and a key trade group in Sri Lanka called for a new government to take control of the crisis-hit country on Tuesday while the president asked for calm following clashes that claimed eight lives and prompted his brother to quit as prime minister.

A strike by owners of fuel tankers over the weekend renewed Sri Lanka's long queues for diesel and petrol on Monday as pumps ran dry, compounding the island nation's economic and energy crisis.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has dismissed his brother as finance minister in a government shakeup amid growing protests triggered by an economic crisis in the country.

Security forces were deployed across the Sri Lankan capital after protesters tried to storm the president's home in anger at the nation's worst economic crisis since independence.

Flash floods and mudslides triggered by heavy rains in Sri Lanka have killed 14 people and left two missing while more than 5,000 are displaced.

International experts were deployed to Sri Lanka to deal with a possible oil spill after the ship loaded with chemicals and plastic burned offshore for almost two weeks.