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


Three Togo players and the bus driver are reported to have been injured.

"I am fine but several players are in a bad way," Nantes striker Thomas Dossevi told Radio Monte Carlo.

"We are still at hospital. We were attacked like dogs and had to hide for 20 minutes under the seats to avoid the bullets."

The reported incident occurred as the bus was crossing into Angola from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Africa Cup of Nations is due to start in Angola on Sunday.

Togo were due to get their Cup of Nations campaign underway against Ghana on January 11. Dossevi also said that the team no longer wanted to play at the tournament.

Organising committe member Virgilio Santos had earlier reassured competing teams about security in Angola after some expressed concerns about the country's ability to host a major tournament.

After gaining independence in 1975, Angola was hit by civil war until a ceasefire in 2002.

However, the northern province of Cabinda - which borders with Republic of Congo - is still heavily disputed and up to a third of its population live as refugees in nearby DR Congo.