ANKARA // A group within Turkey's military has attempted to overthrow the government and security forces have been called in to "do what is necessary", prime minister Binali Yildirim said late on Friday.
"Some people illegally undertook an illegal action outside of the chain of command," Mr Yildirim said in comments broadcast by private channel NTV.
"The government elected by the people remains in charge. This government will only go when the people say so."
Those behind the attempted coup would pay the highest price, he added.
Howver, the military claimed to have taken charge in statement read out on NTV. "The power in the country has been seized in its entirety," the statement said, without giving further details. The military's website was not immediately accessible.
The state-run Anadolu agency said the chief of military staff among those taken hostage at the military headquarters in Ankara.
Footage on local television channels showed military vehicles blocking bridges over the Bosphorus in Istanbul and tanks deployed at the city's main airport. In the capital Ankara, warplanes and helicopters roared overhead. Gunshots were also heard.
A Turkish official said soldiers had been deployed in other cities in Turkey, but did not specify which ones.
The Dogan News Agency reported that the national police directorate had summoned all police to duty in Ankara.
Since 1960, Tuurkey has experienced at least three takeovers by the secular-minded army. But since president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party government came to power in 2002, the political influence of the military has been trimmed.
* Agencies
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