Jubilant Sudanese shout 'regime has fallen' as they wait on army

Huge crowds of jubilant Sudanese thronged squares across the centre of Khartoum on Thursday as the army promised an "important announcement" after months of protests demanding the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir.

Thousands more chanted "the regime has fallen," as they poured into the open ground outside army headquarters where defiant protesters have braved tear gas to keep up an unprecedented sit-in now in its sixth day.

There was still no sign of the army's promised announcement by afternoon but state media announced that the security agency was freeing all political prisoners in the meantime.

"The Sudanese army will issue an important statement soon. Wait for it," the state television anchor said, without elaborating as martial music replaced normal programming.

Sources and witnesses told AFP that soldiers had raided both state television and the offices of a group linked to Bashir's ruling National Congress Party.

Army vehicles carrying troops were seen deploying across the centre of Khartoum. Troops raided the offices of the Islamic Movement, the ideological wing of Bashir's ruling National Congress Party, witnesses told AFP.

Protesters cheered the passing army trucks as expectations mounted that top brass were poised to meet their demand.

Outside army headquarters, dozens of joyful protesters climbed on top of landcruisers and armoured vehicles that had been posted to protect them from intervention by other branches of the security forces.

Braving the searing 42 degree Celsius (108 degree Fahrenheit) heat, protesters hugged and kissed soldiers in the crowd.

Sudan's feared intelligence service said it was freeing all the country's political prisoners, state media reported.

"The National Intelligence and Security Service has announced it is releasing all political detainees across the country," the official SUNA news agency said.

But in the eastern cities of Kasala and Port Sudan, protesters stormed NISS buildings after the releases failed to materialise, witnesses said.

Protesters approached the NISS building in Kasala demanding that officers free their prisoners, a witness told AFP by telephone from the city.

"But NISS officers fired in the air after which protesters stormed the building and looted all the equipment inside," he said.

Protesters chanting slogans against Bashir's 30-year rule also stormed an NISS building in Port Sudan, a witness said.

The raids on NISS buildings came despite a call by protest organisers for demonstrators to refrain from attacking government figures or buildings.

"We are calling on our people to control themselves and not to attack anybody or government and private properties," the Alliance for Freedom and Change (AFC), the umbrella group that is spearheading the protest movement, said in a statement.

"Anyone found doing this will be punished by law. Our revolution is peaceful, peaceful, peaceful."