Algeria gas explosion kills 14

A gas explosion yesterday killed 14 people and injured 28 others when a residential block collapsed in eastern Algeria, local authorities said.

The blast early yesterday was caused by a gas leak and destroyed two floors of a five-storey building in a poor neighbourhood in the city of Guelma, 540 kilometres east of the capital, Algiers.

"Out of eight people operated on, two have died, so we have currently 14 dead," a Guelma health department official told state radio.

Local hospital officials reduced the death toll to 14 from an earlier figure of 17. More than 20 wounded people were still hospitalised.

Search and rescue operations were now over, said a local journalist at the scene.

"Authorities are now trying to house families made homeless by the explosion," he said.

Algeria, a member of the OPEC oil producing cartel, is a major crude oil and natural gas exporter.