Bissau - Tiny West African nation Guinea Bissau has arrested the head of its navy after he allegedly telephoned senior officers and asked them to help overthrow President Joao Bernardo Vieira, reports said.
"We have foiled a coup attempt that was to have been carried out early on Thursday by a group of officers led by Rear Admiral Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto, head of the navy," the BBC reported army spokesman Col Arsenio Balde as telling reporters late Friday in Bissau.
Balde said that Na Tchuto, who is under house arrest, was turned in by senior army officers after he asked them to join the coup attempt.
Guinea Bissau is currently in the grip of political turmoil after President Vieira dissolved parliament earlier this week.