Guinea-Bissau coup: Soldiers seize power and detain President Umaro Sissoco Embaló

The military takeover comes as the West African nation was awaiting the results of Sunday's election.

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Shortly after gunshots were heard in the capital, Bissau, government sources told the BBC that Embaló had been detained.

The officers then appeared on state TV, saying they had suspended the electoral process, as the West African nation awaited the outcome of Sunday's presidential election.

They said they were acting to thwart a plot by unnamed politicians who had "the support of a well-known drug baron" to destabilise the country, and announced the closure of its borders and imposed a night-time curfew.

Sandwiched between Senegal and Guinea, the coup-prone country is known as a notorious drug-trafficking hub where the military has been influential since independence from Portugal in 1974.