Akon Performs in Airtight Bubble to Avoid Ebola

R&B star Akon has been accused of going to extreme lengths to avoid catching Ebola during a concert in Africa ... by crowd-surfing inside a giant plastic bubble.

The 'Locked Up' singer climbed inside the airtight blow-up during a performance in Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, on Sunday and rolled over the crowd, pushed along by the outstretched hands of 60,000 screaming concert-goers.

But his actions prompted breathless reports from certain media outlets that, rather than just being a creative way of performing closer to his fans, it was a cynical attempt to shield himself from the deadly virus that is sweeping West Africa.

'The Ebola virus is no joke,' harrumphed The Source website. 'And to avoid contracting it from anybody, when Akon left the stage to crowd surf with the people that were attending his concert, he did so in a huge plastic protective bubble.'

What the website did not report was that the five-time Grammy nominee has performed inside the stage prop on a number of previous occasions including in Perth, Australia, and Dubai, both in 2010. Neither of those countries were battling Ebola outbreaks at the time.

'As Akon, I see myself as a child of Africa,' the artist told the crowd, who is of Senegalese descent and spent time in Senegal as a child, which he calls his 'hometown'.