Niger's president kidnapped in coup attempt

NIAMEY, Niger - Renegade soldiers in armored vehicles stormed the presidential palace with a hail of gunfire yesterday, kidnapping the strongman president, then going on state television to declare they had staged a successful coup.

The soldiers said on state TV that the country's constitution had been suspended and all its institutions dissolved.

Their spokesman said the country was now being led by the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy and asked citizens and the international community to have faith in them.

Smoke rose from the white-hued multistory palace complex and the echo of machine-gun fire for at least two hours sent frightened residents running for cover, emptying the desert country's downtown boulevards at midday.

Traore Amadou, a local journalist who was in the palace, said President Mamadou Tandja was kidnapped by mutinous troops.

Radio France Internationale reported that the soldiers burst in and neutralized the presidential guard before entering the room where Tandja was holding a cabinet meeting. They politely escorted him outside to a waiting car, which drove him toward a military camp on the outskirts of the capital.

His whereabouts remained unknown hours later when the soldiers took to the airwaves to announce the coup.

Tandja took power in democratic elections in 1999 that followed an era of coups and rebellions. Instead of stepping down Dec. 22 as mandated by law, he triggered a political crisis by pushing through a new constitution in August that gave him near-totalitarian powers.