Linkin Park cancels tour after injury

 Linkin Park has canceled nearly a month of concerts around North America after the arena-packing hard rockers' lead vocalist Chester Bennington injured his leg, AFP reports.

The band, which opened its latest tour last week in Orlando, Florida, had been scheduled to tour until February 14 with a Valentine's Day show in Edmonton, Canada.

"I'm really disappointed this injury has made it impossible to continue with this tour. The first couple of shows were just magical," Bennington said in a statement late Tuesday.

Linkin Park kept summer dates, including an appearance at the inaugural US edition of Rock in Rio. The band toured Europe last year.

Linkin Park formed in the mid-1990s among high school friends in suburban Los Angeles and enjoyed limited success until the smash hit 2000 album "Hybrid Theory," which won over both hard rock and alternative fan bases.

The band has since sold more than 68 million albums and has proven to be experimental, bringing rap and electronic elements into the music, although its most recent album "The Hunting Party" returns to a harder rock sound.

Linkin Park was touring with Rise Against, the Chicago punk band known for its left-wing politics and advocacy of animal rights, and Of Mice and Men, the California metal group named after the John Steinbeck novel.