The West African nation of Burkina Faso has been plunged into crisis by a military coup which has apparently overthrown its transitional government.

The 27-year rule of autocratic President Blaise Compaore ended last year in a popular uprising, but interim President Michel Kafando struggled to manage the transition to democracy in one of the world's least-developed countries.

Soldiers seized power in a coup less than a month before elections meant to restore democracy. The presidential guard burst into a cabinet meeting yesterday and arrested Kafondo, Prime Minister Yacouba Isaac Zida and two ministers. A military spokesman said today that it had stripped him of his functions and dissolved the government.

The powerful presidential guard has repeatedly meddled in politics since Compaore was toppled in a popular uprising in October last year.

"The patriotic forces, grouped together in the National Council for Democracy, have decided today to put an end to the deviant transitional regime," the military official said on RTB state television.

"The transition has progressively distanced itself from the objectives of refounding our democracy," he said, adding that a revision of the electoral law that blocked supporters of Compaore from running in the planned October 11 had "created divisions and frustrations amongst the people".

The apparent coup – which had raised condemnation from the United Nations, the US government and former colonial power France – ended hopes of a smooth transition in Burkina Faso, which became a beacon for democratic aspirations in Africa after protesters ousted Compaore.

However, the coup has not gone unchallenged. Hundreds of people took to the streets of the capital Ouagadougou late on Wednesday to protest against the seizure of Kafando and the prime minister.

On Thursday, soldiers fired warning shots to disperse a crowd of more than 100 people gathered in the central Independence Square to protest against the presidential guard.

Sporadic gunfire continued to ring out from other areas of the capital early on Thursday morning.

The head of Burkina Faso's transitional parliament has called on the armed forces to step in and halt the coup by what he said "a small group" of military officials, and said he would assume leadership until the president was released.

"The transition was put in place by the will of the people, who fixed its duration and its mission...It is not a small group which is going to change that," Moumina Cheriff Sy told Reuters in an interview. "In the absence of President Kafando, I assume the leadership of the transition."

Additional reporting by Reuters.