Photos shared widely on social media show grinning protesters taking the novel move when confronted with water cannons at an anti-government protest in the city of Jaffna.

Dr Thusiyan Nandakumar, a Tamil journalist and GP in London, tweeted: “You’ve got to love the defiance.”

The Tamil protests took place as President Ranil Wickremesinghe visited a university in the northern city, the Tamil Guardian reports.

Other footage shared online shows the protesters retaliating by throwing a mix of water and cow dung at police.