The Madagascar government on Friday ordered civilians to evacuate areas around a military camp in the Antananarivo suburbs where a group of mutinous troops are holed up.

"We ask families living in the Ivato camp and residents of the surrounding area to temporarily leave the area for a safer place," the Defence Ministry said in a statement broadcast on national radio and television.

Around 20 officers who staged an attempted coup Wednesday but failed to win support from the rest of the military are believed to be inside the camp around 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the centre of the city near the international airport.