YAOUNDE, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Explosions were heard early Saturday after Mount Cameroon Race of Hope, an international athletic competition, kicked off in the country's restive Anglophone region of Southwest, according to the police and eyewitness.
The blasts went off in three locations just a few minutes after the race began in Buea, the chief town of the region, the local police said.
"We lined up along the road to watch the athletes as they were racing. The bomb exploded just along the road. There was smoke and the sound was loud," Johnson Nfor, a witness, told Xinhua by phone.
"Five athletes were in front of me. Just when I was about to overtake them, the bomb exploded and hit my leg," Obamissang Dimitri, an athlete who was taking part in the race, told reporters in a hospital where he was rushed to after the injury.
Bomb blasts occur sporadically in Cameroon's two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest where separatists are seeking to create an independent nation. ■