Guinea-Bissau's army is holding the leader of the security forces unit involved in overnight clashes and is in control of the situation, an army chief of staff spokesman said on Friday.
"Colonel (Victor) Tchongo is in our hands. The situation is completely under control," military chief of staff spokesman Captain Jorgito Biague told AFP.
Tchongo, who is in the national guard, had surrendered, a military official said on condition of anonymity, due to the sensitivity of the matter.
He also said Economy and Finance Minister Souleiman Seidi and Secretary of State for the Treasury Antonio Monteiro -- whom national guard members are suspected of extracting -- had been found safe.
Police questioned them for several hours about a withdrawal of $10 million from state coffers, according to military and intelligence sources who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
Lawmakers had also questioned Seidi about the withdrawal during a National Assembly session on Monday. He claimed the withdrawal was legal and intended to support the national private sector.
Access to the southern neighborhoods of the city were blocked off by security forces and residents said they had fled north.
Heavy gunfire was heard by an AFP reporter near the barracks in the neighborhood.
Special forces intervened after several unsuccessful attempts at mediation, with calm restored following an exchange of gunfire, the sources said.
Members of the Guinea-Bissau Stabilization Support Force, deployed in the country by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), were seen patrolling the streets of Bissau on Friday morning, an AFP journalist saw.
President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, elected in December 2019, is currently in Dubai attending the United Nations Climate Conference, COP28.
Embalo appointed two generals in September, Tomas Djassi and Horta Inta, as head of presidential security and chief of staff respectively.
The posts had not been filled for several decades.
The reinforcement of presidential security comes at a time when coups or attempted coups are multiplying in West Africa, including in Gabon, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and, this week, Sierra Leone.