6 players killed in Togolese team bus crash

LOME, Togo – At least six topflight footballers were killed and another 28 people critically injured on Saturday after a bus carrying them plunged into a ravine and caught fire.

In a statement read on national television, the Togo government said President Faure Gnassingbe had ordered that those injured from the Etoile Filante club be taken to the military wing of the Lome Central Hospital to receive urgent medical attention.

A delegation, led by sports minister Christophe Tchao, travelled to the accident site with an ambulance to evacuate the injured.

The accident happened near the city of Atakpame, about 160 kilometers (99 miles) north of Lome, as Etoile Filante was on its way to Togo’s second largest city of Sokode for Sunday’s league game against Semassi.

A tire is believed to have burst, causing the bus to topple over and plunge down a ravine. Some of the victims reportedly burnt to death. Eyewitness accounts said the bus flipped over several times as it crashed into the ravine.

“We do not know how we managed to get out of the accident,” said one of the survivors, goalkeeper Mama Souleyman.

Images on Togo national television showed the smouldering wreckage of the bus, which was almost completely burnt to ashes.

The Lome-based Etoile Filante is a seven-time Togo national league champion and was runner-up in Africa’s continental club competition in 1968.

Last year, two Togo national team officials were killed and several players hurt after a gun attack on the team’s bus as it travelled to the African Cup of Nations tournament in Angola.
In 2007, Togo sports minister Richard Attipoe was among 22 people who died when a helicopter carrying Togolese football fans and officials crashed in Sierra Leone after an African Cup qualifying match.