French nuclear giant Areva is urging staff in Niger to stay at home following reports of a coup attempt in the capital Niamey, a spokesman said Thursday.
Areva employs 2,900 people in Niger, mostly local staff, in uranium mines located far from the capital, said spokesman Julien Duperray.
"We have asked our staff to stay at home," he told AFP.
In 2008, state-owned Areva produced 3,000 tonnes of uranium in Niger, nearly half its total world output. Its mining operations in the former French colony began in the 1970s.
Its two main mines, Cominak and Somair, are situated near Arlit, some 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) north of the capital.
Soldiers opened fire Thursday in the Niger capital in what a top French official said was a coup attempt against President Mamadou Tandja.
A French source said Tandja had been captured by the putschists.
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