Bombs killed up to 30 people in Algeria's capital today in a series of attacks for which al Qaeda has claimed responsibility.
Firemen assist a victim of a suicide car bomb that exploded near the prime minister's headquarters in central Algiers today. Photo: Reuters/Louafi Larbi
The attacks raised fears the north African oil exporter was slipping back into the intense political violence of the 1990s.
One of the blasts, believed to be a suicide bombing, ripped part of the facade off the prime minister's headquarters in the centre of Algiers. A second bomb hit Bab Ezzouar on its eastern outskirts, the official APS news agency said.
The Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the bombings, Al Jazeera television reported.
The claim could not be immediately verified but the group, formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), has taken responsibility for a number of deadly attacks on security forces and foreigners in Algeria since January.
Hospital sources put the toll from the two bombings at 30. Earlier, the official APS news agency put the toll at 17 dead with 82 wounded.
Residents said Wednesday was the first time since the 1990s that a powerful bomb targeted the centre of the Mediterranean city where police had stepped up security following a rise in attacks by insurgents in the countryside.
The blast at the prime minister's headquarters gouged a gaping hole in the six-storey building, shattering windows and showering rubble on to cars for blocks around.
Police sources said the attack was a suicide bombing.
Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem, who was not harmed, was quoted by APS as calling the attack a "criminal and cowardly act". Speaking to state television, he described the blast as a terrorist attack.
Dozens of ambulances converged on the upscale residential neighbourhood as thousands of people poured on to the streets and survivors were led from the building.
Medics carried the bloodied and burned victims in their arms and on stretchers from the government palace.
"I am horrified and indignant after the attacks which have just struck Algiers," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said in a statement.
"I convey my sincerest condolences to the victims' families and assure the Algerian authorities of our full solidarity in their fight against terrorism." France ruled Algeria before independence in 1962.