Military officers in Guinea-Bissau announced Wednesday they were taking"total control" of the country while suspending its electoral process and closing its borders, three days after the poverty-stricken west African nation's legislative and presidential elections.

Military personnel made the announcement by reading a statement at army headquarters in the capital, Bissau, AFP journalists observed on the scene.

Guinea-Bissau's President Umaro Sissoco Embalo confirmed he was deposed in an exclusive phone call with FRANCE 24.

“I have been deposed," Embalo said, adding that he could not talk further without risking his phone being confiscated.

Embalo, now removed from office, said he was"currently at the general staff headquarters".

Earlier in the day gunfire was heard near the coup-prone country's presidential palace as men in military uniform took over the main road leading to the building.

As shots rang out, people and vehicles fled from the area, the AFP journalist observed.

A passerby fleeing from the chaotic scene said:"we're used to it in Bissau".

Official provisional vote results are expected Thursday in the tumultuous west African country, which has experienced four coups since independence, as well as multiple attempted coups.

Both the outgoing president Embalo and opposition candidate Fernando Dias have declared victory.

Military officers also arrested Dias, along with Guinea-Bissau's main opposition leader, Domingos Simoes Pereira, who was barred from last weekend's presidential election. The Supreme Court said that Pereira and his party, PAIGC, had filed their official election applications too late.

Embalo had been expected to win the election, which until Wednesday had passed off peacefully.

Pereira and Embalo are political arch-rivals: the last presidential election in 2019 was marked by a four-month post-election crisis as both men claimed victory.

The head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) observation mission, Issifu Baba Braimah Kamara, had on Tuesday just praised the"peaceful conduct of the vote".

Guinea-Bissau is among the world's poorest countries and is also a hub for drug trafficking between Latin America and Europe, a trade facilitated by the country's long history of political instability.