Madagascar's paramilitary police and army on Sunday mounted an assault on renegade soldiers who staged a mutiny at a military camp by the main airport, police said.An AFP corresondent nearby reported a surge in gunfire around 4:30 pm (1330 GMT), while a police source said the assault had begun against the mutiny, which broke out just days before a planned meeting between rival leaders over a political crisis sparked by an army-backed coup in 2009.
Defence Minister Andre Lucien Rakotoarimasy said earlier that the army had already brought the situation under control at the Ivatu air and naval base near Antananarivo international airport.
"The chief of staff has things in hand," he told AFP after some four hours of heavy gunfire in the morning followed by intermittent shooting. He said the mutineers' demands were unknown, and would not say how many were involved.
Unconfirmed reports said there was shooting also at the airport, and that a negotiator was killed.
A diplomat said the mutiny could be an attempt to derail the landmark face-to-face meeting set for Wednesday in the Seychelles between current President Andry Rajoelina and Marc Ravalomanana, whom he ousted in the 2009 coup.
The leader of the renegade troops was identified as Koto Mainty, or the "Black Corporal", a former member of the mutinous regiment said, adding that several young recruits had joined him.
The Ivatu base was the scene of a mutiny in November 2010 and an attempted coup against current leader Rajoelina.