Rival factions of Burundi's army have fought intense battles for control of the capital, a day after a top general launched a coup to oust the central African nation's President Pierre Nkurunziza.
The clashes on Thursday were centred around the state television and radio complex, with broadcasts to the nation halted. The president himself was in neighbouring Tanzania when the coup was launched and remains in a secret location in Dar es Salaam, Tanzanian officials said.
AFP reporters said the crackle of automatic weapons fire and the thump of explosions could be heard throughout the night and intensified around dawn. After a brief lull and after state radio broadcast a message from Nkurunziza, a major attack was launched by pro-coup troops.
"We are being attacked. It is very heavy. The transmitter has been cut. We cannot transmit," a station director told AFP by telephone from inside the building.
The streets were largely deserted by civilians as sporadic clashes could be heard in other parts of the city, while plumes of smoke were seen on the city skyline.
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"We control virtually the entire city. The soldiers who are being deployed are on our side," coup spokesman Venon Ndabaneze told AFP. Similar claims, however, were made by troops loyal to the president, and it remained unclear which side had the upper hand.
Burundi's armed forces chief, a supporter of the president, had also used national radio to declare that the coup, launched by former intelligence chief Godefroid Niyombare, had failed.
Supporters of the president also carried out attacks against independent media broadcasters in the capital, with the influential African Public Radio station ablaze after being hit by a rocket.
The attempted coup capped weeks of deadly civil unrest sparked by the president's controversial bid to stand for a third term.
The crisis has raised fears of a return to widespread violence in the impoverished country, which is still recovering from a 13-year civil war that ended in 2006 and left hundreds of thousands dead.
Opposition and rights groups insist that it is unconstitutional for Nkurunziza, who has been in office since 2005, to run for more than two terms. The president, however, argues his first term did not count as he was elected by parliament, not directly by the people.
More than 50,000 Burundians have fled the violence to neighbouring nations in recent weeks, with the UN preparing for thousands more refugees.
Nkurunziza was meanwhile stuck in neighbouring Tanzania, after his attempt to return home after the coup was announced was blocked by his opponents who seized the airport and ordered the borders to be shut.
