TEN people were killed and more than 20 wounded early yesterday when a powerful car bomb exploded in Algiers. The bomb exploded near a coach in front of a school in the working class Bir Khadem district. The blast hurled the bus through the air.
Firefighters retrieved charred bodies. Shoes, scarves and money were strewn tens of metres away in the narrow street. Witnesses said the bus was transporting state employees.
"Body parts were buried there," a little boy said, pointing to a mound near the bus. The engine and twisted metal parts of the booby trapped car were nearby. Ambulances were delayed by early morning traffic jams.
More than 150 people have been killed in recent weeks, in a wave of violence preceding a constitutional referendum on November 28th. Yesterday's bomb coincided with a stepped up campaign by the government to get the electorate among Algeria's 29 million people to vote.
On Thursday five people were killed in a blast in western Algeria. Earlier in the week, 36 people were killed in neighbouring mountain hamlets.
The Interior Minister, Mr Mostefa Benmansour, condemned what he termed a "cowardly terrorist attack" and said it "confirms the plans of these criminals who are enemies of this nation".
Algerian state run radio reported the bomb attack in a broadcast carrying a lengthy report on the Prime Minister, Mr Ahmed Ouyahia's meeting in the Algiers suburb of Baraki devoted to the referendum.
The government "has chosen to come to the people in disadvantaged areas and to meet them in the places which have suffered the anguish of terrorism," he said. His meeting was one of several by ministers seeking support for a heavy turnout, widely seen as essential to give credibility to the change.
Prominent Algerian personalities yesterday issued a statement calling on Algerians to mobilise for peace. Its signatories included former president Ahmed Ben Bella, former ministers and others, and spoke of "tens of thousands of dead, mutilated, widowed, orphaned, and political detainees, victims of the cycle of violence and repression".
More than 50,000 people have been killed since violence erupted in 1992 after the authorities cancelled a general election dominated by Islamists.