Hundreds of soldiers in Burkina Faso on Thursday joined demonstrators opposing plans to extend President Blaise Compaore’s nearly three-decade rule, Radio France Internationale reported.
It said that protesters earlier stormed parliament and set it on fire.
While part of the army was helping police to repress demonstrations, about 500 soldiers from Ouagadougou’s main barracks joined protesters asking for power to change hands on a central square.
It said the president’s brother, Francois Compaore, had been arrested at the airport when trying to leave the country.
However, Compaore’s whereabouts were not known.
It reported that national radio and television were off the air while internet services were interrupted.
Witnesses said that they saw flames and smoke coming from the parliament building.
The storming of parliament was preceded by clashes with police.
Demonstrators said that police fired live bullets and seriously injured several of them, following overnight clashes in which tear gas was used.
West Africa Democracy Radio in Dakar said that one person had been killed during protests in Ouagadougou, and that the home of the speaker of the national assembly had been looted.
Demonstrations were reported in many parts of the country.
The city hall and the mayor’s residence were set on fire in the second-largest city, Bobo-Dioulasso.
In Koudougou in the centre of the country, the headquarters of the governing Congress for Democracy and Progress was burned down.
CDP offices and residences of its representatives were looted in several places.
Parliament had been due on Thursday to consider amending the constitution to allow Compaore to contest elections in 2015 by extending term limits.
Demonstrators had vowed to prevent legislators from entering parliament.
Ouagadougou has seen several days of protests after opposition leader, Zephirin Diabre, called on citizens to protest against the “manipulation” of the constitution.
Compaore, 63, took power in a 1987 coup and was re-elected four times since 1991, for two seven-year and two five-year terms, in elections whose transparency was questioned.
Constitutional limits introduced in 2005 would prevent Compaore from running for president in 2015.
Young demonstrators said Compaore’s long rule had allowed his family and allies to grab most economic power.
The European Union criticised the planned constitutional amendment, stressing the need for political and democratic alternation.
“Everything that risks jeopardising stability, equitable development and progress towards democracy must be rejected,” EU Foreign Policy Chief, Catherine Ashton, said in a statement.
The White House has said that the US is concerned about the deteriorating situation in Burkina Faso resulting from efforts to amend the constitution.
Bernadette Meehan, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, stated this on Thursday in a statement.
“We believe democratic institutions are strengthened when established rules are adhered to with consistency,” Meehan said in the statement.
“We call on all parties, including the security forces, to end the violence and return to a peaceful process to create a future for Burkina Faso that will build on Burkina Faso’s hard-won democratic gains,” Meehan said.
Gunshots were heard earlier in the day and a helicopter was seen flying above Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso.
On Wednesday, tens of thousands of people took to the street in Ouagadougou to protest against the bill.
Organisers put the number of protesters at about one million.
Xinhua/DPA/NAN.