Bombs Rock Algerian capital, at least 67 people killed

(CNN) -- Two bombs exploded in the Algerian capital of Algiers Tuesday with reports of several dead, local media said.

The country's interior minister, Nourddine Yazid Zerhouni, said at least six people were killed in one attack, the Associated Press reported.

The Algerian Press Service told CNN there were "several victims" from what it called a terrorist attack.

Agence France-Presse reported that 27 people were killed, citing security and medical sources.

The news agency said one blast occured on a school bus and another went off in the residential district of Hydra.

Video from the scene showed a shallow crater in the road, surrounded by rubble and crowds of people.

A nearby four-story building was missing its facade and there was damage to some of the building's interior.

At least 27 people were killed in two blasts that rocked the Algerian capital on Tuesday, security and medical sources said.

One of the explosions was on a school bus in front of the Supreme Court building, while the other blast was in the nearby residential area of Hydra, a popular location for foreign residents of Algiers.

Security sources said at least 15 people were killed in the Hydra blast, while medical sources said 12 people died in the bus explosion.

At least 20 people have died in two bomb blasts in the Algerian capital, Algiers, officials have said.

The first explosion is reported to have happened in the centre of the city, near the country's Supreme Court.

That was followed shortly afterwards by a second blast at the United Nations offices in the Hydra neighbourhood.

A UN worker caught up in the Hydra attack told the BBC that part of the building was destroyed and it was feared people were trapped.

She said that a number of people had been hurt.

The Algerian interior minister, Yazid Zerhouni, said that the explosions were caused by two car bombs, according to the AFP news agency.

There has been no immediate claim of responsibility.

Throughout 2007 there have been a series of bomb attacks across Algeria in which scores of people have died.

Those blasts have been claimed by members of al-Qaeda's North Africa wing, calling themselves al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

The militant group was previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) but changed its name when it joined forces with al-Qaeda last year.

A reporter from CNN affiliate BFM quoted hospital sources as saying 62 people were killed in both blasts.

Redmond said the U.N. headquarters and a separate building housing its refugee agency's office had "suffered extensive damage."

"Apparently this was an extremely powerful bomb," Redmond told CNN. "It's caused a lot of damage and right now we're just trying to sort out where our staff are."

Algeria's Minister of State Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni said the explosions were the result of two cars full of explosives, according to the state news agency.

So far no group has admitted responsibility for Tuesday's blasts.

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Suspected Al Qaeda militants detonated twin car bombs in Algiers on Tuesday, killing up to 67 people in the bloodiest attack in the north African country since an undeclared civil war in the 1990s.