That was in Pakistan, I believe.
Breaking News - Togo team bus fired at
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That was in Pakistan, I believe.
Caporegime
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Driver dead and 4 hurt I saw on sky sports just now, not sure how badly they are hurt.
Not even close to a good signal for tourists who want to go in the summer, first day there, first team gets attacked.
Not even close to a good signal for tourists who want to go in the summer, first day there, first team gets attacked.
) City to confirm he was okay on the BBC.
I didn't know someone had died, thats terrible 
Surely question marks will be raised about the security ahead of the World Cup, especially since its this close. I hope the ACON still goes ahead, its usually such a brill tournament :/
Surely question marks will be raised about the security ahead of the World Cup, especially since its this close. I hope the ACON still goes ahead, its usually such a brill tournament :/
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Hmm, BBC has it they were at the Angola border having just passed the checks and were surrounded by police when they attacked, police shot them back and now players have been taken all over. Villa have a player in the squad and he's ok too apparently.
Odd though, is there a slim chance that it was simply people wanting to illegally get in/out of Angola and the bus was there as a complete coincidence? The cup organisers apparently expected them to fly to the capital before doing (I assume) a shorter drive to wherever they were going.
Can't tell if the police were only border station based guys, or if they were being escorted also. Seriously as above, I can't believe the richer players and the richer clubs don't basically insist on flying where possible and heavy heavy security. Driving into a country without the organisers knowing seems a little stupid.
EDIT:- It was on the sky sports ticker that the driver had died, but can't see it anywhere on the bbc as yet. Hopefully it wasn't accurate information, but then one of the players said there was a lot of blood and they are very very worried about several team mates, they've been rushed to multiple hospitals so could well be one of those situations where no one quite knows whats going on yet.
Odd though, is there a slim chance that it was simply people wanting to illegally get in/out of Angola and the bus was there as a complete coincidence? The cup organisers apparently expected them to fly to the capital before doing (I assume) a shorter drive to wherever they were going.
Can't tell if the police were only border station based guys, or if they were being escorted also. Seriously as above, I can't believe the richer players and the richer clubs don't basically insist on flying where possible and heavy heavy security. Driving into a country without the organisers knowing seems a little stupid.
EDIT:- It was on the sky sports ticker that the driver had died, but can't see it anywhere on the bbc as yet. Hopefully it wasn't accurate information, but then one of the players said there was a lot of blood and they are very very worried about several team mates, they've been rushed to multiple hospitals so could well be one of those situations where no one quite knows whats going on yet.
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http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,13962_5844019,00.html
Jesus, they fired on the luggage bus without realising, which may well have saved most of their lives, so incredibly lucky.
One guy was shot twice but they say he's stable after surgery, they know two of what they think of 6 people that were shot. Seems like they were surrounded by a lot of police buses and it was 5 minutes down the road so they were definately the target.
I don't know whats worse, the idea that they did this as a terrorist act to get attention, or the idea that they wanted to kill a specific team for footballing reasons, which would be beyond believable really, I half hope its the former as the idea of doing that over a cup is sickening.
SOunds like they really got lucky with their luggage bus taking most of the fire, doesn't say the driver died specifically but sounds like when they turned to the second bus it all went through the front.
Jesus, they fired on the luggage bus without realising, which may well have saved most of their lives, so incredibly lucky.
One guy was shot twice but they say he's stable after surgery, they know two of what they think of 6 people that were shot. Seems like they were surrounded by a lot of police buses and it was 5 minutes down the road so they were definately the target.
I don't know whats worse, the idea that they did this as a terrorist act to get attention, or the idea that they wanted to kill a specific team for footballing reasons, which would be beyond believable really, I half hope its the former as the idea of doing that over a cup is sickening.
SOunds like they really got lucky with their luggage bus taking most of the fire, doesn't say the driver died specifically but sounds like when they turned to the second bus it all went through the front.
Angola is not South Africa.
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Angola is not a million miles from South Africa, at all and frankly, AFAIK theres not really secured borders at all in Africa, if terrorists wanted to get from Angola to South Africa it would be very easy.
But then as of yet we have no idea who they were, what they hoped to achieve(in terms of a political message or simply hurting a football team), where they were from, how they got there.
Some people are responding to the sky article saying it could only happen in Africa, idiots, terrorist attacks are exclusive to Africa are they. Though if it was related to the football, rather than just a high profile target used for political reasons it probably is the first attack of its type isn't it?
Couple prem clubs asking for assurances already or to send their players back(from other teams), imagine at this point the Toga team wants out of harms way as soon as possible.
They are also now saying the driver was shot, 9 injured of which two were from the squad, not sure if thats 9 people on the bus, or 9 included several police who you assume would have taken a lot of gunfire themselves. Still not clear if the police drove them off or killed them all, hopefully the later.
But then as of yet we have no idea who they were, what they hoped to achieve(in terms of a political message or simply hurting a football team), where they were from, how they got there.
Some people are responding to the sky article saying it could only happen in Africa, idiots, terrorist attacks are exclusive to Africa are they. Though if it was related to the football, rather than just a high profile target used for political reasons it probably is the first attack of its type isn't it?
Couple prem clubs asking for assurances already or to send their players back(from other teams), imagine at this point the Toga team wants out of harms way as soon as possible.
They are also now saying the driver was shot, 9 injured of which two were from the squad, not sure if thats 9 people on the bus, or 9 included several police who you assume would have taken a lot of gunfire themselves. Still not clear if the police drove them off or killed them all, hopefully the later.
A group of 'Angolan' rebels fighting for independence of the territory have claimed responsibility for the shooting.
Bad thing, but I've always thought that football stadiums/teams/players were always at quite a big threat to something like this.
I read something last week that said all the teams had hired lots of armed security, not sure what happened here?
I read something last week that said all the teams had hired lots of armed security, not sure what happened here?
Firstly, I'll re-iterate that Angola is completely different to South Africa. If you think it's easy to travel across Africa you're having a laugh.
Angola recently came out of civil war and the region this attack occurred in have been fighting for independence from Angola for some time (it is an Angolan exclave in Congo).
Furthermore, you mention about not having secured borders in Africa? What facts are your views even based on or are you just making it up as you go along? South Africa is a massive target for immigration from sub-saharan Africa and as such they do their best to keep people out for the most part.
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Surely that doesn't need answering?
Regarding concerns over safety at the World Cup in general; obviously the problems are completely different far less severe than in Angola but you still have to ask yourself why such an event is being held in SA when you consider all the crime problems it does have.
World Cup hosts should be decided based upon suitability not Fifa trying to be 'fair'.
Soldato
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why on earth shoot a bus full of football players. thats just insane. i dont get how people can justify acts like this. barbaric
if i was the togo team id get out of there, not a chance id stick around them places, call it cowardice but as pointed out above, its a football match...
if i was the togo team id get out of there, not a chance id stick around them places, call it cowardice but as pointed out above, its a football match...
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Terrorists don't not do things because they aren't easy, if they did terrorism would be almost non existant.
Yes the reason the attack occured here is a country thats had a lot of cival war and they want independance, with a lot of Oil in that specific area of Angola people want to own that area unsurprisingly. But that doesn't stop people using high profile events to try and make a point, thats what terrorists do, the African Nations Cup is a high profile event and attacking a bus with football stars on got them press coverage across the world, thats what terrorists look for. The world cup is one of the single most broadcast and watched events in the world today, if you don't think that makes it a high profile target for attacks, you're nuts.
If you think terrorists won't attempt something because its not easy to get there, as for unsecured borders, yes border checkpoints on road will be guarded, as with most countries. America spends hundreds of millions on border protection and thousands of people still get through. Very few countries in the world have true border control, maybe China had the best attempt with their big ass wall.
My facts that Africa has general unsecured borders, are based on the fact that almost every country in the world has unsecured borders and terrorists have rarely had that much difficulty moving around, unfortunately. You can't actively watch thousands of miles of border every second of every day, to pretend I'm ill informed because infact their borders are secure, is ignorant of the reality.
Now obviously while there could easily be terrorists planning some attacks, there will be LOTS of people with lots of help from probably a lot of the biggest inteligence agencys all looking to stop them.
The other quite obvious problem with terrorism is you don't know whose planning attacks, nothing to say a bunch of Angolans won't fly into south africa completely legally with nothing on them and do something after they land and are there.
EDIT:-
Its a little worrying that rather than fly into the capital and a "safer" area that the organisers thought they were, who thought it was a great idea to drive across the border in a very obvious convoy through such a dangerous area
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Caporegime
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Whats the attack got to do with football, nothing, it was just a high profile target, they had no reason to attack that bus, except it would get a lot of press coverage, thats the end goal of terrorists. The other logical event in Africa that would also get a lot of high profile coverage is...... the WC.
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Togo have now withdrawn.