Hours after a powerful blast rocked a power plant near the Algerian capital, newspapers in the north African country speculated that the explosion was caused by an attack by extremists, while officials stuck to their line that it was accidental.
At least 11 people were injured when an explosion rocked Hamma power station, just outside the Mediterranean coastal capital, Algiers, at around 9pm GMT on Monday.
The thick cloud of smoke that filled the sky above the power station and was visible from Algiers set residents of the capital talking about ”a bomb attack”.
But shortly after the explosion, Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni said the blast was ”apparently accidental,” adding that it was ”up to the inquiry to determine the exact causes of the explosion”.
State-run Sonelgaz, which owns and operates the Hamma power station, said that ”the cause of the blast… has not been determined,” while government-controlled media followed the line set by Zerhouni and blamed the explosion on ”a technical incident”.
But on Tuesday morning, newspapers put forward the possibility of an attack, citing anonymous witnesses and ”observations”, such as the large crater visible in the pavement in front of the power station and the fact the the perimeter wall of the installation had collapsed ”towards the inside”.
The French-language daily Liberte speculated in a front-page headline: ”A car-bomb attack?”
It went on to say: ”Clues found on the scene indicate that it was a car-bomb which targeted this important electricity production infrastructure.
”And in that case, the objective would be to plunge the capital, along with a good part of the national territory, into darkness.”
Hamma power station, built by an Italian company and inaugurated by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in June 2002, feeds electrical installations throughout Algeria, Africa’s second largest country.
The attack theory is given more credence by the fact that the head of Algeria’s largest Islamic radical group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), Nabil Sahraoui, was killed on Friday by the army, officials and the media have said.
”Sources have not ruled out the possibility of a car bomb attack by the GSPC,” wrote El Watan newspaper, while another daily, Le Matin, noted that the power station blast came at a time ”when the GSPC has been stepping up attacks”.
People who live near the power station were unable to say categorically if the blast was due to a technical problem at the plant or a bomb.
”I live nearby… my building shook and I thought it was an aftershock of the [May 2003] earthquake or a bomb,” explained Rabah.
He said he ran, with neighbours and passers-by, ”towards the place where the noise and explosion appeared to have come from, and where a thick cloud of smoke was rising.
”We saw glass, bits of metal and rock on the street, a car in flames, others with their windows shattered, passengers running away from the explosion,” he said.
Another witness said he saw a ”large hole in the perimeter wall of the power station, a damaged building, people who were shouting, screaming, running away.”
But, he added: ”I can’t say where the blast came from or if it was a car bomb attack. There was a burnt-out car and others that were less damaged — I can only tell you what I saw.” – Sapa-AFP