Ghanaian police probe 'suspicious' death of Senegalese footballer

Ghanaian police have opened an investigation into the "suspicious" death of Cheikh Toure, a 20-year-old Senegalese footballer, whose body was taken to a hospital last week.

The announcement on Monday of a formal probe came after Senegal's government said on Saturday that Toure was the victim of a scam and extortion orchestrated by a network of fake recruiters, before being murdered by his captors.

Toure arrived in hospital in the city of Kumasi on Thursday with abdominal injuries caused in circumstances that remain unclear.

A man who identified himself as Issah and claimed to be the victim's brother "brought the deceased to the hospital in a critical condition, with several abdominal injuries, alleging that the victim had been involved in an accident," the police statement said.

"However, hospital records indicate that the victim was already dead on arrival," police added.

Toure, a resident of the Esprit Foot academy in the town of Yeumbeul, near Dakar, came to Ghana hoping to take trials in Morocco, the Ministry of Youth and Sports has said, before being kidnapped and killed.

Senegal's sports ministry has called on "clubs, academies, coaches, and parents to exercise extreme caution when faced with unverified offers of trials or transfers abroad".

Ghanaian police said that they were conducting a thorough investigation into the exact circumstances surrounding the young footballer's death.

Senegal's foreign ministry meanwhile has sent two representatives from its embassy in Ghana to assist the authorities and the victim's family to repatriate his body.