Harare: Troops ordered shops to close and told people to leave the centre of Zimbabwe's capital on Thursday, one day after three persons were killed by soldiers sent in to break up demonstrators claiming this week's presidential election was rigged.

The army crackdown has punctured the euphoria that followed its removal of long-time strongman Robert Mugabe eight months ago, and fuelled suspicions that the generals who launched the coup remain Zimbabwe's de facto rulers.

In Harare, the contrast could not be stronger with November, when hundreds of thousands filled the streets, hugging soldiers and celebrating their role in ousting 94-year-old Mugabe, the only leader Zimbabwe had known since independence in 1980.

"They are showing their true colours now. We thought they were our saviour in November but they fooled us," said newspaper vendor Farai Dzengera, admitting that the brief dream of an end to decades of repression was over.

"Now they tell us to leave town. What can we do? We will go. They run this country."

Nearly all shops in downtown Harare were shuttered and the normally bustling pavements eerily quiet. Several streets remained littered with the rubble and embers from Wednesday's clashes between protesters and soldiers.

"We are just waiting to see what they will do next since they don't want us in town. Who can argue with a man carrying a gun?" said Isaac Nyirenda, sipping a sorghum beer out of a sipping a blue plastic bottle.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa's main spokesman, George Charamba, dismissed the reports as "fake news which is meant to destabilise our country".

"My message today to all Zimbabweans is that today is a normal working day. They must go about their business as always," he said on TV.

Mnangagwa, a former security chief nicknamed "The Crocodile", offered his condolences to the families of the victims of the crackdown and said those responsible would be brought to justice. Reuters