Soldiers seize power in Guinea-Bissau and detain the president.

A group of military officers say they have seized control of Guinea-Bissau amid reports that the president, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, has been arrested.

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.

The election results were expected on Thursday – both Embaló and his closest rival Fernando Dias had claimed victory.

Dias was supported by former Prime Minister Domingos Pereira, who had been disqualified from running.

Late on Wednesday afternoon, Embaló told France 24 in a phone call: “I have been deposed.”

Government sources have since told the BBC that Dias, Pereira and Interior Minister Botché Candé have also been detained.

The putschists have taken army chief Gen Biague Na Ntan and his deputy, Gen Mamadou Touré, into custody too, the sources say.

Witnesses in Bissau heard gunfire earlier on, at around 13:00 GMT, but it was not immediately clear who was involved in the shooting or if there were any casualties.