BISSAU: Renegade soldiers seized the head of Guinea-Bissau's armed forces Thursday and briefly detained the prime minister in an apparent coup attempt in the tiny, coup-plagued African nation where the president was assassinated last year.

A crowd of hundreds gathered outside Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Jr.'s office in the capital to denounce the apparent coup attempt as martial music played on the radio, code for a military-led coup in this part of the world.

Hours later, the mutinous soldiers released the prime minister, but the head of the armed forces Zamora Induta remained under guard at a military base while his No. 2 appeared to be in control.

Antonio Ndjai, the detained army chief's deputy, called a news conference soon after Gomes was released and issued a chilling warning: "If the people continue to go out into the streets to show their support for Carlos Gomes Jr., then I will kill Carlos Gomes Jr. or I will send someone to kill him," he said, according to the interview broadcast on state TV.

Luis Sanca, the minister of territorial administration who was taken hostage at the same time as Gomes, said "the situation remains very unclear. We need to wait to see how it develops."

Sanca says that he and the prime minister had gathered for a Cabinet meeting at around 8 a.m. on Thursday when the soldiers burst in and grabbed them. He says they were driven to a military camp inside the capital, where they found that Zamora also had been detained. Sanca said the soldiers let him and Gomes leave without explanation at around 11 a.m.

Since independence from Portugal in 1974, the West African nation has been beset by coups, military revolts and political assassinations. The lawlessness has in recent years attracted South American drugs traffickers, who have used the country as a transit point for shipping cocaine to Europe.

The country's last president who had ruled for nearly a quarter-century was assassinated on March 2, 2009 hours after the head of the army was killed in a bomb explosion. Elections were held three months after the twin assassinations and Gomes' party came to power.