The president of Madagascar Andry Rajoelina has claimed a coup is under way after weeks of intense youth-led protests.

Water and power outages triggered protests in the Indian Ocean country on 25 September, with the young population - of whom around three-quarters are believed to live in poverty - continuing to riot over general dissatisfaction with Mr Rajoelina.

In a major blow to the president, troops from the elite army unit CAPSAT, which helped him seize power during a coup in 2009, joined protesters on Saturday for one of the biggest demonstrations since the unrest began.

Colonel Michael Randrianirina, a commander of the CAPSAT unit, said his troops had exchanged fire with security forces who were attempting to quell the protests in the capital Antananarivo and that one of his sold

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