Algeria was rocked by its second suicide bombing in three days on Saturday as a car bomb ripped through a naval barracks in the northeast of the country, killing at least 28 people.

Around 60 people were injured in the attack in the port town of Dellys 70km east of Algiers, medical sources told AFP. Most of the dead were members of the naval coastguard but civilians were among the injured.

A van normally used to deliver supplies to the barracks smashed through the rear entrance and penetrated 20 metres (yards) inside the base before exploding, according to witnesses.

The vehicle with Algiers number plates was seized beforehand, packed full of explosives and its driver kidnapped, according to

preliminary indications.

A local police official organising the airlifting of the injured by helicopter of the injured said the death toll could rise significantly.

The force of the explosion flattened most of the prefabricated buildings that make up the barracks.

Wood, metal and concrete debris as well as clothing and suitcases were strewn hundreds of metres (yards) around the port as a mass of ambulances with sirens wailing picked up the wounded and helicopters buzzed overhead.

Access to Dellys was blocked off and a security cordon thrown around the port as anti-terrorist police sifted through the rubble.

Former colonial power France immediately condemned the attack, one of the deadliest in the north African country since April and the second in three days.