Politician says heavy firing heard near Libyan PM's hotel

A Libyan politician has told the BBC that heavy firing was heard in the vicinity of a hotel in Tripoli where Prime Minister Ali Zeidan was seized by armed men.

Guma El Gamaty said Mr Zeidan had been staying at the Corinthia Hotel in the capital.

Mr Zeidan was taken from his hotel before dawn "by gunmen to an unknown place for unknown reasons", said a government statement.

A former rebel group loosely allied to the government said it had arrested him following a prosecutor's warrant. The government has denied this.

The government has been under pressure after US commandos seized senior al-Qaeda suspect Anas al-Liby in Libya.

Mr El Gamaty told the BBC that the capture of Mr Liby had caused a lot of "anger on the Libyan streets."