Maldives police mutiny

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Mutinying police on the holiday islands of the Maldives took over the state broadcaster on Tuesday (February 7) and issued an opposition-linked station's calls for people to come on the streets to overthrow President Mohamed Nasheed, witnesses said.

Maldivian television station MNBC ONE broadcast live pictures of crowds of people gathering outside a building, and later showed a boat carrying what is thought to be police getting off and walking through the crowd.

Reuters has not been able to independently verify the content of the footage.

Nasheed was safely inside the headquarters of the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) and in control of the military and would address the nation shortly, a source close to the president told Reuters.

A handful of MNDF soldiers were taking part in the demonstration of several hundred people outside the headquarters, along with police who defied orders to break up opposition protests earlier on Tuesday.

The violence on the Indian Ocean archipelago best-known as a beach getaway is the worst in a struggle between Nasheed, widely credited with ushering in full democracy with a 2008 election win, and former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, whose 30-year rule was widely seen as autocratic.