Three dead after soccer team attack

Togo soccer players react after a bus bringing them to Angola was attacked by gunmen (AP Photo/TPA via APTN)
12 April 2012

A goalkeeper for Togo's national soccer team has said on French radio that the death toll from a shooting attack on the team's bus in Angola has risen to three.

Kossi Agassa - who plays for French club Istres - told France-Info radio by phone that a Togo assistant coach and a spokesperson have also died.

Agassa said that a second team goalie was badly wounded and transported urgently to South Africa for treatment.

Gunmen in an area in Angola plagued by separatist violence used machine guns to open fire on a bus carrying Togo's soccer team to a tournament in the south-west African country.

Angola's Information Minister Manuel Rabelais said that eight team members and one Angolan were injured. In Togo, the government said the Angolan driver was killed.

Togo's bus in a convoy from Congo was six miles across the border in Angola when it came under fire. The bus driver died in the 30-minute ambush, according to Togo captain Emmanuel Adebayor, who was not hurt.

Togo player Thomas Dossevi, who plays for French club Nantes, said that the team wants to pull out of the tournament.

"The situation is really compromised. We are expecting news about the injured people and we are hoping to get away from Cabinda today," he said.

The African Football Confederation (CAF) condemned the attack against the Togolese delegation and held an emergency meeting. A delegation of Angolan officials and a CAF delegation are headed to Cabinda, while the Angolan Prime Minister will meet CAF president Issa Hayatou "to take decisions to guarantee the smooth running of the competition".

FIFA also expressed "utmost sympathy" in a statement and said it expected a report from CAF.

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