A suicide bomber rammed an explosives- filled car into a police academy in Algeria, killing at least 43 people - mainly civilians and young recruits waiting to take an entrance exam.

Deadly attack on police school - 20 / 08 / 2008 00:01

An Al-Qaeda group has claimed previous suicide attacks in Algeria but officials gave no indication who was behind the attack on candidates waiting to take an examination at Issers, 60 kilometres (40 miles) east of Algiers.

The Interior Ministry stressed that the casualty toll was still provisional.

But it is already the deadliest attack this year in Algeria and worse than the December 2007 attacks in Algiers against government and United Nations buildings, which killed 41 people and injured many others.

Witnesses told AFP the attacker drove a car packed with explosives at the main entrance to the school as university graduates waited outside to start an entry exam in the hope of joining the paramilitary gendarmerie.

"It's utter carnage," said the elderly father of one of those killed in the attack. "It's a catastrophe," he said, weeping. "May God punish them for the crime they have committed against these youngsters, and their country."

His son had been one of those hoping to join one of the most prestigious units of the gendarmerie.

Another candidate survived because he went to buy cigarettes but his father, mother and brother were killed in the blast, witnesses said.

As well as devastating the entrance to the school, the blast destroyed several nearby houses, blew out windows in nearby shops and tore up trees.

The explosion left a crater several metres across. Civilians and police were among the victims, witnesses said.

AFP