NLD press officer Kyi Toe said neighbours had spotted Suu Kyi walking around within the walls of her compound on Tuesday morning.

Yangon-based analyst Khin Zaw Win said it appeared Suu Kyi was safe for now. “All reports indicate she is not in danger,” he said.

But it is likely the military has made a strategic decision to keep her hidden, Herve Lemahieu from Australia’s Lowy Institute said.

“I think the idea is very much to keep her away from public view ... she’s being kept in Naypyidaw... far from all the major population centres where protesters may rally. I think that’s a deliberate choice,” Lemahieu said.

It is in the military’s interest to ensure Suu Kyi remains in good health, he said.

“Senior officials realise if she were to fall ill or die whilst under arrest people would suspect foul play and that may well provoke a very severe backlash,” Lemahieu said.

Aung San Suu Kyi, her NLD party and the Myanmar military behind coup

“Release all detainees including the president [Win Myint] and the State Counsellor [Suu Kyi],” the party said in a document posted on its official Facebook page.

“We see this as a stain on the history of the State and the Tatmadaw,” it added, referring to the military by its Burmese name.

Among the other cabinet appointments were top officials aligned with the military, while others were former ministers in the military-backed government of former President Thein Sein. That includes Win Shein, who previously held the post of finance and planning minister and was reappointed to the position.

Hundreds of people have reportedly been detained, including all members of Suu Kyi’s NLD party who were in the capital. NLD lawmakers’ spouses are said to be under house arrest.

Joe Biden calls for Myanmar’s military to relinquish power immediately

Among the other people reportedly detained were ethnic minority party members and a prominent film director who has been previously arrested by police for making a Facebook post critical of the military.

Buddhist monk Shwe Nya War Sayadawa, known for his outspoken support for the NLD, was also among those arrested on Monday, his temple said. Monks are a powerful political force in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

There were few signs of extra security on the streets of Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city and commercial capital, indicating the military’s comfort levels as they faced no mass protests.

“We want to go out to show our dissatisfaction,” a taxi driver said on Tuesday morning. “But Amay Suu [Mother Suu] is in their hands. We cannot do much but stay quietly at this moment.”

“The international community should come together in one voice to press the Burmese military to immediately relinquish the power they have seized,” Biden said, referring to Myanmar by its former name. “The United States is taking note of those who stand with the people of Burma in this difficult hour.”

UN Secretary Generals Antonio Guterres, the European Union and Australia were among others to condemn the coup. Britain summoned Myanmar’s envoy in formal protest. But China declined to criticise anyone, instead calling for all sides to “resolve differences”.

The United Nations Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on the situation for Tuesday.

In Myanmar, protests and political instability on the cards, along with a test for Joe Biden

In Britain, a British junior foreign minister said on Tuesday Aung San Suu Kyi was the rightful winner of Myanmar’s election and should be released.

“The United Kingdom considers the election result to credibly reflect the will of the people and that Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party are the rightful winners of the election,” Nigel Adams told parliament.

In China, state media described the military takeover in Myanmar and detention of Aung San Suu Kyi as “a major cabinet reshuffle”.

Beijing called for all parties in Myanmar to “resolve their differences”, and the official Xinhua news agency on Monday described the military replacing elected ministers after the coup as a “major cabinet reshuffle”.

The nationalist Global Times meanwhile quoted unnamed experts as saying the generals’ power-grab could be seen as “an adjustment to the country’s dysfunctional power structure”.

An MP with Suu Kyi’s NLD party said life continued as normal in the resident dorms for parliamentarians, but their compound is like “an open-air detention centre”.

“We are not allowed to go outside,” she said, requesting anonymity for fear of the military. “We are very worried.”

The military announced on Monday that it would hold power under a state of emergency for 12 months, claiming it would then hold fresh elections.

Myanmar’s November polls were only the second democratic elections the country had seen since it emerged from the 49-year grip of military rule in 2011.

The NLD won more than 80 per cent of the vote in November – increasing its support from the 2015 elections. But the military had for weeks complained the polls were riddled with irregularities, and claimed to have uncovered more than 10 million instances of voter fraud.

Suu Kyi had issued a pre-emptive statement ahead of her detention calling on people “not to accept a coup”, according to a post on the Facebook page of her party’s chairperson.

Suu Kyi, 75, is an immensely popular figure in Myanmar for her opposition to the military – which earned her the Nobel Peace Prize – having spent the best part of two decades under house arrest during the previous dictatorship.

But her international image was shredded during her time in power as she defended the military-backed crackdown in 2017 against the Rohingya.

About 750,000 Rohingya were forced to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh during the campaign, which UN investigators said amounted to genocide.

Myanmar army chief Min Aung Hlaing was headed for retirement before seizing control

Derek Mitchell, the first US ambassador to Myanmar after military rule, said the international community still needed to respect Suu Kyi’s overwhelming victory in November.

The West “may have considered her this global icon of democracy and that lustre is off. But if you care about democracy in the world, then you must respect the democratic choice and she is clearly that”.

“It’s not about the person; it’s about the process,” he said.

Additional reporting by Kyodo, Reuters, Bloomberg, AFP