DR Congo 'repulses' TV, airport and army base attacks
A still from video footage, which showed a chaotic
scene in the TV studio
The Democratic Republic of Congo's
army has repulsed several attacks in the capital, Kinshasa, by an "unknown
terrorist group", the government says.
The state TV headquarters, the international airport and a military base in the city were all targeted.
The information minister said the situation was now under control and about 40 attackers had been killed.
Meanwhile, the army has also clashed with unknown gunmen on the outskirts of Lubumbashi, an army spokesman said.
He told the BBC that some of the attackers in Lubumbashi, the main city of DR Congo's southern mineral-rich Katanga province, had been arrested.
Joseph Kabila is currently visiting the Katanga
region President Joseph Kabila, who won his second term in office two years ago, is touring Katanga but was not under any threat, DR Congo's Information Minister Lambert Mende told the BBC.
'Shooting everywhere'
Mr Mende said the attackers at the state TV and radio headquarters had been armed with weapons such as knives, and there was "no chance of them even to maintain their positions, even for a single hour".
"People were frightened when security personnel were firing against these attackers," the minister told the BBC's Focus on Africa radio programme after visiting the RTNC headquarters.
He told the AFP news agency that 16 attackers had been killed at the airport, 16 at the military base and eight at the RTNC offices.
About 70 people in total had taken part in the attacks, the minister told Reuters news agency.
Mr Mende told the BBC he understood that two staff members forced to read a statement on TV were safe.
Reuters said the statement appeared to be a political message against President Kabila's government.
"Gideon Mukungubila has come to free you from the
slavery of the Rwandan," said the message, according to Reuters.
In 1997, Rwandan-backed troops ousted DR Congo's long-serving ruler Mobutu Sese Seko and installed Laurent Kabila - the father of incumbent leader Joseph Kabila - as president.
According to Reuters, Gideon is the nickname used for religious leader Paul Joseph Mukungubila by his followers. He ran unsuccessfully for president in 2006.
The agency also reports that those involved in the Lubumbashi incident were his followers.
Mr Mende said the government had not yet established the reason for the attack there.
The armed youths stormed the studio around 08:40 local time (07:40 GMT) during a live magazine programme, shouting slogans - one of which in French said "for the liberation of Congo".
In a separate incident, a taxi driver told AFP that he had heard about "six or seven shots" from heavy weapons fired at the Tshatshi military camp. The shots were heard between 09:00 and 09:30 local time.
After RTNC went off air, a customs official at Ndjili airport told Reuters: "Shooting has started here. They are shooting everywhere. We are all hiding."
Kinshasa RTNC TV has now resumed normal programming - at 09:20 local time signals were restored and at 10:00 the station carried a news bulletin in French which did not mention the incident.
The US embassy in Kinshasa has advised all US citizens not to travel around the city until further notice.
"The embassy has received multiple reports of armed engagements and fighting around Kinshasa… The embassy has also received reports that there are police and military checkpoints and barricades in many places," it said in a statement posted on its Facebook page at 10:00 local time.
