Togo leader's brother in shootout

Kpatcha Gnassingbe (C) said he was the victim of an assassination attempt

A security raid on a house belonging to the brother of the Togolese president left at least two people dead and three others wounded, reports say.

A BBC reporter in Togo says security forces exchanged fire on Sunday night with troops loyal to the president's brother, Kpatcha Gnassingbe.

Following the shootout in a Lome suburb officials accused President Faure Gnassingbe's brother of coup plotting.

He denied the charges and said he was the victim of an assassination attempt.

Prosecutors said five senior military officers had been arrested.

Former Defence Minister Kpatcha Gnassingbe is now under house arrest.

He told the BBC that armed men in military uniform had turned up at his home spraying bullets at his bedroom and the bedrooms of his children during the gun battle, which lasted at least three hours.

President Gnassingbe, who was elected in 2005 during a vote which observers said was flawed, cancelled a foreign trip on Sunday after the shootout.

He became president after the death of his father, Togo's veteran leader Gnassingbe Eyadema in 2005.