Bolivia’s President Luis Arce said an attempt to topple his leftwing government had been foiled. On Wednesday afternoon, heavily armed troops, apparently commanded by a top army general, stormed the government palace before beating a retreat and seeing their alleged leader detained.

President Arce urged citizens to take to the streets to defend the country’s democracy from an apparent coup attempt, after troops seized control of a central square in La Paz which houses government buildings.

The President said in a video message filmed at the Great House of the People: "We need the Bolivian people to mobilise and organise themselves against this coup d’état and in favour of democracy." 

Flanked by members of his cabinet, Arce said: "We cannot allow, once again, attempted coups to claim Bolivian lives."

The comments came after other members of Arce’s administration and Latin American leaders claimed an army-led putsch was under way.

"We denounce to the international community that a coup attempt against our democratically elected government," the vice-president, David Choquehuanca, tweeted on Wednesday afternoon.

In another video message, the foreign minister, Celinda Sosa Lunda, claimed some army units had launched an attack on "democracy, peace and national security."