Gabon has foiled an attempted military coup and arrested several plotters just hours after they took over state radio in a bid to end 50 years of rule by President Ali Bongo's family.

Government spokesman Guy-Bertrand Mapangou told Radio France International that the five officers involved were arrested in the capital Libreville on Monday.

Authorities have regained control of the state broadcasting offices and a major thoroughfare in Libreville, which were the only areas taken over by the officers, according to the spokesman.
Earlier on Monday a soldier who identified himself as Liuetenant Obiang Ondo Kelly, commander of the Republican Guard, read out a statement saying the military had seized control of the government of the West African country.
He was flanked by two other soldiers holding weapons and all were dressed in camouflage uniforms and green berets. He had said they were taking over to "restore democracy". 


WATCH: Gabon soldiers seize national radio station in coup attempt (5:39)


A curfew has been imposed over Libreville, and the internet has been cut. The city on the Atlantic Ocean coast is being patrolled by military tanks and armed vehicles.
Mapangou told France 24 that the situation was under control after the arrests.
"The government is in place. The institutions are in place," he said. 
Panic and fear
Antoine Lawson, a Gabonese journalist, told Al Jazeera the coup attempt had caused panic in Libreville.  "The people are afraid. When the young soldiers asked everyone to come to the streets in support of the coup, nobody did because they were in panic," he said from Libreville. 
The African Union affirmed its support for the Bongo government.
"The African Union strongly condemns the coup attempt this morning in Gabon," the head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, said on Twitter.
"I reaffirm the AU's rejection of all anti-constitutional change." Separately, France, which ruled Gabon from 1885 until independence in 1960, said it condemned "any extra-constitutional attempt at regime change". "The stability of Gabon can only be assured by strict adherence to the provisions of the constitution," foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll said in Paris.
The Bongo family has ruled the oil-producing country since 1967. Bongo has been president since succeeding his father, Omar, who died in 2009.
His re-election in 2016 was marred by claims of fraud and violent protest. Bongo has been out of the country since October amid reports that he had a stroke. He recently addressed the country in a New Year's message that was filmed in Morocco, where he has been receiving medical treatment.
In one of his first television appearances since he suffered the stroke in Saudi Arabia in October, Bongo, 59, slurred his speech and he appeared unable to move his right arm. It is unclear if he is able to walk. 
In his absence, the Constitutional Court transferred part of the powers of the president to the prime minister and the vice president. Gabon, a small country with a population of about two million people, is estimated to be the fourth-richest nation in Africa.Source: aljazeera.com