A group of 14 tribesmen have been killed in what police say is a "massacre" in the troubled Papua New Guinea highlands.

The tribesmen were ambushed in a dawn raid by another tribal group on a notorious settlement called Banana Block at Kainantu in Goroka in the Eastern Highlands province.

PNG Highlands divisional police commander Simon Kauba says one of the biggest tribes, Agarabi, blamed another tribe, Kamano, for the death of one of their men.

He says the Agarabi tribe killed 14 Kamanos living at the Banana Block settlement in response last Friday.

Mr Kauba says more than 100 police officers have been deployed to prevent the incident becoming an all-out war between the two groups.