DHAKA: Protesters angry at plans to allow Burkina Faso’s president Blaise Compaore to extend his 27-year-rule have set fire to parliament.

The BBC’s Laeila Adjovi in the capital, Ouagadougou, say the city hall and ruling party headquarters are also in flames.

The security forces fired tear gas from a helicopter as a crowd surged towards the presidency.

MPs have suspended a vote to allow Compaore to stand for re-election.

One person has been killed in the protests, reports the BBC’s Yacouba Ouedraogo from the capital.

Compaore first took power in a coup in 1987, and has won four disputed elections since then.

The opposition has called for a campaign of civil disobedience to demand that he steps down in elections next year.

‘October 30 is Burkina Faso’s Black Spring, like the Arab Spring,’ opposition activist Emile Pargui Pare told media.

State television has gone off air after protesters stormed the building housing it and ransacked it, a witness told the media.

BDST: 1936 HRS, OCT 30, 2014