The troops overcame soldiers on guard duty and stormed into Gnassingbe's bedroom, which they looted, like that of his children, shooting inside and around the house, witnesses told AFP.

"It was a heavily armed unit of the (elite) Rapid Intervention Force. They neutralised the soldiers who were watching over the house," one source close to the president's brother said.

"Mr Gnassingbe was there, but not in the rooms targeted by the attackers. They encircled the building and were firing in all directions for at least three hours," the source added.

Nobody was killed or injured, sources said, yet inside the building, walls and some doors and windows had been damaged by bullets. Spent cartridge cases lay in the bedrooms and around the entrance to the house.

Senior officers of the Togolese Armed Forces declined to comment on the incident and the authorities in the small west African country have issued no statement.

A former defence minister between 2005 and 2007, Gnassingbe was elected the member of parliament for Kara, about 420 kilometres (260 miles) north of Lome during legislative elections in October 2007.

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