The brother of the king of Ghana's influential Dagomba tribe confirmed today the ruler had died in factional violence that is thought to have claimed scores of lives.

"My brother died from his injuries, from bullet wounds," Alhasan Andani, brother of Dagomba king Yakubu Andani II, told AFP.

The police said yesterday the ruler had been decapitated in his palace by attackers from the Abudu clan, who share the chieftancy of the Dagombas on a rotating basis with the Andani family.

But Andani claimed that his brother had been murdered by hired killers.

"He was done to death by mercenaries because any Dagoma would recognise their king," he said. "He was killed by non-Dagombas."

Andani said according to the information he had received, "at least 60 people" had died in factional violence in the Dagomba capital Yendi, 531 kilometres north of Accra.

The 50-year-old king, a former schoolteacher, was the second most important regent in Ghana after the ruler of the country's dominant Ashanti ethnic group.

According to police, armed attackers stormed the king's palace yesterday killing the regent and 25 others. They said 15 other bodies were found elsewhere.