6 May 2009

Mutiny in Georgia now over

9:04 am on 6 May 2009

Authorities in Georgia say they have ended a brief mutiny by a tank battalion at a military base outside the capital, Tbilisi.

The interior minister says the base commander has been arrested and others are being questioned.

Tbilisi said earlier it was part of a Russia-linked coup attempt to kill President Mikhail Saakashvili.

Russia's envoy to Nato described the charges as "mad". The trouble comes a day before Nato exercises in Georgia.

The rebellion began as the government announced it had disrupted a coup plot.

The BBC describes relations between Georgia and Russia as poisonous. They fought a brief war over the breakaway territory of South Ossetia last August.