In a stunning coup, mutinous soldiers in the West African nation of Guinea detained President Alpha Conde on Sunday and announced that the government has been dissolved.
Reports said that heavy gunfire rang out near the presidential palace in the capital before the military junta took power.
The country's borders were closed and its constitution was declared invalid in the announcement on state television by army Col. Mamadi Doumbouya.
He told Guineans: "The duty of a soldier is to save the country." "We will no longer entrust politics to one man. We will entrust it to the people," said Doumbouya with about a half dozen other soldiers flanked at his side.
The junta later announced plans to replace Guinea's governors with regional commanders and warned: "Any refusal to appear will be considered rebellion" against the country's new military leaders.
The coup is a dramatic setback for Guinea, where many had hoped the country had turned the page on military power grabs.
Conde's 2010 election victory, which was the country's first democratic vote ever, was supposed to be a fresh start for a country that had been mired by decades of authoritarian rule and political turmoil.