The leader of Burkina Faso's short-lived coup said Tuesday he feared there had been "many deaths" after an army assault on the barracks of the failed putschists.

The army "fired artillery," General Gilbert Diendere told AFP, adding that there had been families and a clinic inside the sprawling base next to the presidential palace in Ouagadougou. "There must have been many deaths and injuries." It was not immediately clear how many people died.