The number of people killed in the shooting attack on the bus carrying the Togo national football team in Angola has risen to three, it has been claimed.
Goalkeeper Kossi Agassa - who plays for French club Istres - told France-Info radio that a Togo assistant coach and a press officer had also died.
Agassa added that back-up goalie Obilale Kossi was badly injured and had been flown to South Africa for treatment.
On Friday officials said the bus driver had been killed and eight others including two players were wounded in the 30-minute ambush.
News of the additonal deaths came after Togo decided to pull out of the African Cup of Nations, which is due to begin on Monday.
Togo captain and Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor said earlier: "As the captain I can say that if the security is not sure, then perhaps we will be leaving.
"It is a football game and one of the biggest tournaments in Africa, but I don't think people are ready to give their lives. A lot of players want to leave."
Adebayor, who joined City from Arsenal for �25m last year, said he also feared the attack would tarnish Africa's image in the year when South Africa hosts the World Cup.
The bus had just entered the Angolan enclave of Cabinda, where separatists have waged a three-decade long war, when it came under heavy fire from gunmen.
An Angolan minister branded the attack an "act of terrorism". Cabinda produces most of Angola's oil.
Many of the footballers in the competition play for top European clubs.
As well as Adebayor they include Cameroon forward Samuel Eto'o of Inter Milan and Chelsea's Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba.
Togo player Thomas Dossevi, who plays for French club Nantes, told The Associated Press Saturday 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.
"Despite this, the championship will go on," Angola's Sports Minister Goncalves Muandumba said.
Ivory Coast general manager Kaba Kone told The Associated Press on Saturday that his team was "shocked and are living through very hard times" but never considered pulling out of the tournament.
He said the Ivorian players visited their Togolese counterparts late Friday to express their sympathy.
There were no visible security forces guarding the Ivory Coast team's hotel in Cabinda on Saturday, but Kone said CAF and tournament organizers are stepping up their measures to guarantee safety.
"This event can still be a big party," he said.
The wounded were taken to a hospital in Cabinda, and Portugal's state-run Lusa news agency said it received a communication from the region's main separatist group, FLEC, claiming to have carried out the attack.
Rabelais said Angola's government was now blaming the separatist group for the attack. He said the attackers came from the Republic of Congo into Angola, and fled back after the attack.
Togo Football Federation vice president Gabriel Ameyi said the team should have flown to Angola instead of traveling by road.
"Who or What Is FLEC?"
A separatist group, the Front for the Liberation of Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC) claimed responsibility for the attack, which happened two days before the start of the 2010 African Nations Cup.
"This operation is just the start of a series of planned actions that will continue to take place in the whole territory of Cabinda," the FLEC said in a statement.
The Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC) is a separatist guerrilla and political movement in Cabinda, Angola. Formerly under Portuguese administration, with the independence of Angola from Portugal in 1975, the territory became a province of the newly-independent Angola. The FLEC acts in the region occupied by the former kingdoms of Kakongo, Loango and N'Goyo.
The organisers, the Confederation of African Football (CAF), said the tournament would go ahead despite the atrocity.
The Angolan government said it would step up security so the competition, due to run from January 10 to 31 in four provinces including Cabinda, could go ahead.
Source: Skynews/AP
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