Burundi's army put down a coup attempt yesterday, the defence minister said, after a group of young ethnic Tutsi soldiers seized control of the state radio and television station.
Defence Minister, Mr Cyrille Ndayirukiye, said control was being restored in the capital after a junior army officer claimed to have overthrown the government while President Pierre Buyoya was out of the country.
"The situation is increasingly under control. For the high command and members of the armed forces the message from the mutineers is null and void. "The population is asked to remain calm," the minister said on several private radio stations.
The state radio and television station was still in control of the putschists but was surrounded by loyalist troops.
A military official said the mutineers were negotiating at the entrance of the station. "The mutineers are not yet surrendering. They are in the process of negotiating," the official said.
Loyalist troops also surrounded the airport, where mutineers had earlier taken up positions. The mutiny came as President Buyoya, an ethnic Tutsi who himself seized power in a 1996 coup, was in Gabon holding talks with the leader of a main Hutu rebel movement.
Yesterday's drama began when a lieutenant, identifying himself as Pasteur Ndakarutimana, and his supporters left their barracks near the airport and seized the state broadcast facility.
Ndakarutimana, an ethnic Tutsi claiming to lead a group called the Patriotic Youth Front, announced that President Buyoya, his government and parliament were suspended.
From Libreville, President Buyoya managed to reach Bujumbura by phone and was assured that security was under control, South Africa's Deputy President Jacob Zuma said from the Gabonese capital, where he had held talks with the Burundian president.
"Buyoya was able to talk to his defence minister, chief of staff of the army and the civilian chief of staff who assured him that the situation was under control. They already put in place soldiers to surround these and disarm them," Zuma told journalists.
The city was calm around 9:00 pm , although military checkpoints prevented vehicles and pedestrians from crossing over bridges in the capital.
In Washington, the US State Department said there were signs the coup attempt in Burundi had failed, noting that orders given by the alleged putschists had not been implemented.