ZIMBABWEAN tyrant Robert Mugabe was this morning booted from office - as a military coup ended his 37-year iron grip on power.
The country's army confirmed the southern African nation's 93-year-old president had been "detained" but insisted he was "safe".
Soldiers had earlier seized the country's state TV station amid explosions and gunfire after tanks rolled into capital Harare.
Brits were immediately warned by the Foreign Office to stay indoors while Americans were told to "take cover and seek shelter".
Exiled former vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa - nicknamed The Crocodile - has been installed as leader after being flown back into the country, a Twitter account claiming to be run by plotters said.
The account, with 55,000 followers, has in the past been accused of being a parody account.
It said: "Zimbabwe was not owned by Mugabe or his wife" - a reference to Grace Mugabe, who the statement accuses of "taking advantage" of the elderly despot.
His reviled wife was this morning reported to have fled to Namibia.
The army finally stepped in yesterday after Mugabe fired popular number two Mnangagwa, his probable successor, last week.
The alleged Zanu-PF account added: "Last night the first family was detained and are safe, both for the constitution and the sanity of the nation this was necessary.
"Today begins a fresh new era and comrade Mnangagwa will help us achieve a better Zimbabwe."
Leading commentator on Zimbabwean politics Chris Mutsvangwa said: “This is a correction of a state that was careering off the cliff.
“It’s the end of a very painful and sad chapter in the history of a young nation, in which a dictator, as he became old, surrendered his court to a gang of thieves around his wife.”
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