Three murder suspects have had to be protected by police from an angry crowd at the start of a their trial in northern Ghana.

Hundreds of people, mostly health workers, besieged the Tamale High Court, to catch a glimpse of a medical assistant and two accomplices, accused of murdering a pregnant woman, and chopping her body up into one-hundred-and-seventy-nine pieces.

Ghanaian police say the killing is believed to have been a ritualistic murder, and that missing organs were used for spititual purposes.

A BBC Correspondent in Ghana says several houses in the suspects' home village had already been burnt down by angry crowds.