An elite military unit told AFP Tuesday it had taken power in Madagascar after the national assembly voted to impeach President Andry Rajoelina for desertion of duty.

The 51-year-old president had refused growing demands to step down, going into hiding after weeks of anti-government street demonstrations in the island nation.

"We have taken power," Colonel Michael Randrianirina, head of the CAPSAT military unit, told AFP after reading out a statement at a government building in the capital.

The unit will set up a committee composed of officers from the army, gendarmerie and national police, he said.

Civilian government to be formed 'after a few days'

CAPSAT played a major role in the 2009 coup that first brought Rajoelina to power.

"Perhaps in time it will include senior civilian advisers. It is this committee that will carry out the work of the presidency," Randrianirina said in his statement.

"At the same time, after a few days, we will set up a civilian government," he said.

The announcement came minutes after the lower house of parliament voted to impeach Rajoelina in a session dismissed by the presidency as "devoid of any legal basis."

Rajoelina says he is in 'safe space'

Just hours earlier, Rajoelina had dissolved the national assembly by decree to block the session.

The impeachment passed with 130 votes in favour – well above the two-thirds constitutional threshold required in the 163-member chamber.

The High Constitutional Court has to validate the vote.

Rajoelina, a former mayor of the capital Antananarivo, said late on Monday he was sheltering in a "safe space" after attempts on his life, without revealing his location.

The protests began on September 25 and reached a pivotal point at the weekend when mutinous soldiers and security forces, including CAPSAT, joined the demonstrators and called for the president and other government ministers to step down.