Suicide car bomber hits Algeria police HQ, injures 29

At least 29 people have been injured in a suicide car bomb attack on a police station in Algeria, officials say.

They say the bomber crashed his vehicle packed with explosives into the main entrance of the station in Tizi Ouzu, east of Algiers.

Among the wounded were policemen and also civilians living in the compound.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack in the region, which is a stronghold of the Islamist group al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Algeria's official APS news agency said that 29 people were injured in the attack, which happened at about 04:00 local time (03:00 GMT) on Sunday.

However, some reports put the number of the wounded at more than 30.

Tizi Ouzu, about 100km (60 miles) east of Algiers, is the capital of the Kabylie region, where AQIM have carried out a series of attacks in the past.

Algeria was riven with violence after the 1992 general election, won by an Islamist party, was annulled.

More than 150,000 people died, but an amnesty in 1999 led many rebels to lay down their arms.

Political violence in Algeria has declined since then, but militant groups continue to carry out sporadic attacks.