Togo's team bus hit by machine gun fire

thomond2006

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8449319.stm

A bus carrying Togo's national football team to the Africa Cup of Nations has been hit by machine-gun fire, injuring two players, reports say.

The reported incident occurred as the bus was en route to Angola from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Africa Cup of Nations is due to start in Angola on Sunday.
Togo's first game is to be played on Monday in the oil-rich northern territory of Cabinda, where rebels have been fighting for independence.

The identities of the wounded players are not known. There are unconfirmed reports of serious injuries.

The Togolese team includes Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor.

:eek:

I hope nobody is seriously hurt.

MagicMarker

Well, that's not very nice.

magma69

Feckin hell. That's crazy. I hope whoever is injured makes a full recovery.

Headshot

the driver was killed
source ssn

GLaDOS

Crazy getting a bus across Africa like that surely, not to mention one where there's fighting.

Hopefully everyone's ok.

Eire-Dearg

Terrible news, but who else can picture Adebayor kicking ass and saving the day in such a situation? Only me? Ok.

enviro

Man city still trying to contact Adebayor, four injured

Daysha

Adebayor is fine according to tweets from BBC Sport correspondents. There's 4 players and 2 doctors injured in total, haven't heard anything from them yet about the driver.

Roaster

Eire-Dearg wrote: »

Terrible news, but who else can picture Adebayor kicking ass and saving the day in such a situation? Only me? Ok.

Hope it wasn't Gooners getting retribution for earlier on in the season...

Gillington

Wow,shocking introduction to the ACN,wonder what action will be taken by the organisers.Hopeully this is the only case

flahavaj

Ah lads there could be a man dead here a bit off form making light of it tbh.

DSB

Roaster wrote: »

Hope it wasn't Gooners getting retribution for earlier on in the season...

Not funny.

enviro

Daysha wrote: »

haven't heard anything from them yet about the driver.

Driver Killed, Adi is ok. Shaken but ok

Tom65

Daysha wrote: »

Adebayor is fine according to tweets from BBC Sport correspondents. There's 4 players and 2 doctors injured in total, haven't heard anything from them yet about the driver.

SSN just said Adebayor is okay.

helimachoptor

If i was any of them, i'd be getting on a plane out of there, total disgrace.

Roaster

DSB wrote: »

Not funny.

If I've offended anyone I apologise but FFS it was only a bit of jesting.

Reganio 2

Interesting to see what this holds in store for the World Cup being held in South Africa, without taring all of Africa with the same brush, its a pretty dangerous place, weren't the British Lions over there and getting robbed left, right and centre?

callaway92

Sky Sports news just mentioned Emmanuel Adebayor has not been injured.....4 people badly injured, Driver of bus got killed

Rekop dog

DSB wrote: »

Not funny.

In all fairness, it kinda is, in that guilty sort of way that if anything makes it funnier.

mike65

Why not fly?

flahavaj

mike65 wrote: »

Why not fly?

Seems strange alright, maybe the Togo FA aren't too well off?

mike65

The team could buy a flipping plane!

BaZmO*

flahavaj wrote: »

Seems strange alright, maybe the Togo FA aren't too well off?

The spare change in Adebayor's suit pocket could've paid for the flights for the whole team and staff.

Shocking stuff really. Surely they must've known there'd have been some risk?

everdead.ie

Terrible news I hope that the people are caught and it doesn't put too big a dampner on the tounament. South Africa isn't much better have a friend who's familly are from SA and he and his family went over and on the first day got hijacked. Doesn't bode well for the summer

BaZmO*

everdead.ie wrote: »

T...I hope that the people are caught ...

They won't

everdead.ie wrote: »

...it doesn't put too big a dampner on the tounament...

It will

Royale with Cheese

BaZmO* wrote: »

The spare change in Adebayor's suit pocket could've paid for the flights for the whole team and staff.

Ha, I just can't see Emmanuel Adebayor putting his hand into his own pocket for a flight for himself, nevermind the entire squad.

Spiritoftheseventies

Rekop dog wrote: »

In all fairness, it kinda is, in that guilty sort of way that if anything makes it funnier.

tell that to the relatives of the dead driver. Time and place for jokes and this isn't it.

Daysha

Roaster wrote: »

Hope it wasn't Gooners getting retribution for earlier on in the season...

:eek: You may have a point...

Soby

Daysha wrote: »

:eek: You may have a point...

they have changed that since..took out the bus driver part

Tusky

Its disgraceful that the players are travelling by coach across a dangerous area. Surely they should fly ?

I know its a completely separate country but I was shocked when South Africa was announced as the host nation of the World Cup. I find it hard to imagine it going ahead without serious incident.

mike65

mike65 wrote: »

Why not fly?

Angola (Angolan Airlines) have one of the worst records in the world for crashes. Their planes are called flying coffins - no joke.

The organisers of this tournament are obviously *****. You can fill in the blanks yourself.

Eire-Dearg

A Monaco player was shot,

speedboatchase

Crazy, horrible news. That will be the end of a lot of big clubs releasing their biggest players to this tournament IMO

Nemanja91

Its always the poor bus driver who is working to feed his family that gets killed rather than the overpaid superstars.

flahavaj

Nemanja91 wrote: »

Its always the poor bus driver who is working to feed his family that gets killed rather than the overpaid superstars.

A bit silly to base the value of a human life on their earnings to be fair.

leninbenjamin

speedboatchase wrote: »

That will be the end of a lot of big clubs releasing their biggest players to this tournament IMO

Clubs have no choice. I expect a few players will retire from International duty after this though.

Tom65

As far as I'm aware, DRC is one of the most dangerous countries in Africa, along with Niger. Madness that they'd drive through it.

mayordenis

I think they can win the cup, more so now actually.

CHD

What is the Togo FA playing at. Unreal.

flahavaj

CHD wrote: »

What is the Togo FA playing at. Unreal.

Maybe the FAI aren't that bad after all.

BaZmO*

rarnes1 wrote: »

The organisers of this tournament are obviously *****. You can fill in the blanks yourself.

FIFA?

Galvasean

If I were manager of a team in that competition I would withdraw everyone immediately.

UnitedIrishman

Mental, just mental.

Likelihood is that stuff like this has happened many, many times in the past but because African players have only really started hitting Europe in recent times - that we have heard of it.

Could well be the end of big named players playing in this tournament. With the organisers unable to organise a piss up in a brewery, and most too poor to do up the infrastructure - it's a matter of time before the European based players pull out. About the only thing keeping it going is the passion for the game on the continent.

mike65

Angola is an amazing place to hold this event in the first instance.

Bubs101

Surely this is an instance where Monaco could sue the Togo FA for such massive incompitence leading to the injury of an asset

Kent Brockman

Ah hindsight:rolleyes: God forbid any "racists" out there tried to point out the risks/dangers of holding such a tournament there in the first place:rolleyes:

Driver dead and 6 injured accoeding to latest reports.

Spiritoftheseventies

Bubs101 wrote: »

Surely this is an instance where Monaco could sue the Togo FA for such massive incompitence leading to the injury of an asset

any more info on the monaco player?

Y2J_MUFC

mayordenis wrote: »

I think they can win the cup, more so now actually.

Win it, are you taking the f*cking whiz? Ridiculous. Do they even care about it at this stage? They just got shot at, watched their driver die, 2 doctors injured, 2 players injured.

Do you honestly think that they give two sh!ts about football at this time? I'd be surprised if they play a game.

KittyeeTrix

Shocking news!!!!
Glad to hear Ade is unhurt

Morzadec

mike65 wrote: »

Angola is an amazing place to hold this event in the first instance.

I suppose they saw it as perhaps an opportunity to restore Angola's image and show how it has 'moved on' from it's recent violent past.

Epic Fail in that regard.

Anyone think the whole tournament could be under threat at this stage? Very very bad publicity for the African continent ahead of the World Cup. I know that South Africa is miles away from Angola (both literally and metaphorically with regards security concerns) but this is terrible news.

Any word or idea on a motive/reason for this attack?

BaZmO*

Kent Brockman wrote: »

Ah hindsight:rolleyes: God forbid any "racists" out there tried to point out the risks/dangers of holding such a tournament there in the first place:rolleyes:

Driver dead and 6 injured accoeding to latest reports.

What are you talking about? Most people voiced concerns about the WC being held in South Africa never mind a War Torn country. :rolleyes: