1st LD Writethru: Turkish president says gov't in charge following attempted military coup

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday morning that the government is in charge and he is in power, after the country is smarting from a coup attempt overnight.

In his second speech delivered at Istanbul Ataturk Airport in less than two hours, the president said the armed forces do not and cannot rule Turkey.

Soldiers on a bridge that links Istanbul's Asian and European parts over the Bosphorus Strait have surrendered to the police, Turkish media reported.

The Turkish gendarmerie closed the two bridges over the strait as words of a coup attempt spread on Friday night.

In his first speech, Erdogan vowed to finish the operation against coup plotters to keep the army "clean."

As many as 754 members of armed forces have been detained across Turkey, state-run Anadolu agency reported, citing official.

Sporadic gunfires can still be heard in central Istanbul, but no more explosions and the roaring of jets overhead, a Xinhua reporter said.

Things are reportedly returning to normal in Ankara, Turkey's national capital, where at least 60 people were killed in the chaotic coup attempt, according to the prosecutor's office. Endi