Some radio stations have been taken off air amid reports of gunshots fired in the mountain kingdom.

JOHANNESBURG - Lesotho's Sports Minister Thesele Maseribane says Lesotho's military seized control of the kingdom's police headquarters and jammed radio stations and phones.

Maseribane heads the Basotho National Party that is a member of Lesotho's ruling coalition.

The military have not said why they took such muscular action early today. There have been no reports from the official news agency LENA

South Africa made a brief and bloody military intervention in Lesotho after contentious elections in 1998.

There have been constitutional reforms in the kingdom and peaceful elections.

A coalition government was formed after the 2012 poll won by the opposition.

Earlier there were reports of gunshots fired in the tiny mountain kingdom in the early hours of this morning.

In June, reports emerged that all was not well in the southern African country, with the Lesotho Times saying a political pact of three political parties that gave birth to the country's first ever coalition government had effectively collapsed.

The International Relations Department has yet to comment on developments in the region.

The department's spokesperson Clayson Monyela said, "The department will either convene a media briefing or issue a statement later today regarding the situation in Lesotho."

The report said the development had plunged the kingdom into a new era of political uncertainty.

Two months ago South Africa sent a stern warning to Lesotho that it will not tolerate political instability in the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) region following the suspension of the country's Parliament.

The Parliament was suspended by the prime minister with the blessing of the king.