Gunfire and Explosions Rock Burundi Amid Coup Claims

Clashes reported in capital as army chief says attempted coup, triggered by president's bid for third term, has failed.

Heavy gunfire and explosions have rocked Burundi's capital Bujumbura hours after a senior army officer said he had dismissed the country's president following weeks of protests over a controversial third term, our correspondent has said.

"We understand military factions loyal to the president are fighting those loyal to the coup leader," Al Jazeera's Malcolm Webb, reporting from Bujumbura, said.

"An independent TV station called Renaissance was attacked and burnt overnight," our correspondent said.

The clashes come amid a flurry of rumours over the status of the attempted coup on Wednesday, the whereabouts of President Pierre Nkurunziza, and who remains in control of the central African nation.

A top Burundian general and former intelligence chief Godefroid Niyombare said on Wednesday he had launched the coup, capping weeks of violent protests against Nkurunziza's controversial bid for a third term.

The general has ordered the closure of Bujumbura airport and the landlocked nation's borders, and declared he had the support of "many" high-ranking army and police officials.

But on Thursday morning, Burundi's armed forces chief announced that the attempted coup against Nkurunziza had failed, reported the AFP news agency.

General Prime Niyongabo said the coup had been stopped and that pro-Nkurunziza forces controlled the presidential office and palace.

"The national defence force calls on the mutineers to give themselves up," he added on state radio, also under the control of forces loyal to the president.

A spokesman for the anti-Nkurunziza camp, Burundi's police commissioner Venon Ndabaneze, told AFP the claim was false and that his side was in control of facilities, including Bujumbura's international airport.

"This message does not surprise us because the general has long been allied to the forces of evil and lies," he said.

Padraic MacOireachtaigh, a freelance journalist based in Bujumbura, told Al Jazeera it was difficult to identify who the army was fighting against, though it "seems to be another army-backed faction loyal to the president".

Confusion remains over the whereabouts of Nkurunziza, whose attempt to return home from neighbouring Tanzania after the coup was announced was blocked by opponents who seized the airport.