The transitional government came to power after the president for 27 years, Blaise Compaore, was toppled late last year in a public uprising.
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Soldiers yesterday fired warning shots to disperse a crowd of more than 100 people gathered in Independence Square in Ouagadougou to protest against the presidential guard, a witness said.
Sporadic gunfire continued to ring out from other areas of the capital.
In addition to the overthrow of power, it has announced a night-time curfew will be put in place and the country’s borders closed. The coup – the country’s sixth since it won independence from France in 1960 – unfolded overnight with stunning speed.
Wednesday night, the prime minister and president were arrested by soldiers and the presidential palace was barricaded.
The headquarters of Mr Compaore’s Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP) party were ransacked in Ouagadougou as news of the coup spread, it adds.
Compaore’s resignation was forced by angry demonstrators who set the parliament on fire to show their displeasure over his attempts to seek another term in office.
The official announced that the country’s new leader would be a former general, Gilbert Diendere.
Compaore and his family initially fled to Ivory Coast but his whereabouts on Thursday were unknown. Four years later, Sankara is killed in a military coup led by brother-in-arms Blaise Compaore.
“Duty calls us because the Burkinabe nation is in danger”.
The USA , which along with France has been a close military ally of Burkina Faso, said that it was “deeply concerned” by the events.
A spokesperson for the coup leaders, Lt. Col. Mamadou Bamba, said on television that the interim president, Mr. Kafando, had been stripped of his functions and the government dissolved.
The coup leaders had been prompted to act by the “serious pre-election security situation” ahead of presidential and legislative elections, he said.
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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for Burkina Faso’s military to “exercise restraint”, after at least one person died and scores more were injured in protests following a coup. While Burkina Faso has largely been spared from extremist violence, a Romanian national was abducted in April, and a Mali-based jihadi group claimed responsibility.
