TROOPS in Sierra Leone's capital searched houses looking for ministers of the former civilian government yesterday, a day after a military council seized power in the West African state.
Military sources said five former ministers were detained at the military headquarters.
South Africa joined the United Nations and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in condemning Sunday's coup, which put an end to just over a year of civilian rule.
The coup leaders on Sunday announced the formation of an Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) led by Maj Johnny Paul Koromah. They said they wanted to bring rebels of the Revolutionary United Front into the government to consolidate an elusive peace in the country's civil war.
Staff at Freetown's main hospital said at least 15 people were killed in Sunday's fighting.
The hospital sources said two Nigerian soldiers from the West African Ecomog force had been killed in the fighting, but the Ecomog Field Commander Gen Victor Malu, said in Lagos there had been no Nigerian casualties.
An AFRC spokesman, Capt Paul Thomas, urged people to return to work but shops and markets remained closed, though hundreds of people came out to view the damage from fighting around the presidential offices, which were defended by Nigerian troops stationed in Sierra Leone under a regional defence pact.
A fire destroyed the Treasury building and spread to the central bank.
Gen Koromah said he had over thrown President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah because his government, elected last year after four years of military rule, had failed to consolidate peace and the political situation had encouraged tribal conflict.
The rebel leader, Mr Foday Sankoh, speaking from the Nigerian capital, Abuja, where he has been kept by Nigeria's military rulers for the past two months, declined to comment on the invitation to join the military government. "You have to watch the situation before you talk," he said.
One of the coup leaders first decrees reflected army grievances against Mr Kabbah, abolishing a civilian militia on which he had come to rely against the rebels in fighting continuing despite a peace accord last year.
Troops stormed Freetown's maximum security prison on Sunday and freed 600 inmates, including soldiers charged with plotting against Mr Kabbah. Sierra Leone's ambassador to the US, Mr John Leigh, said the soldiers gave arms to their jailed colleagues and common criminals to attack government buildings.
Land borders and air and sea ports were closed until further notice.