Rescue workers searched through rubble for missing workers at Algeria's largest refinery and export port after a blast at a nearby liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant killed 27 people, including one French and one Turkish worker, wounding 74. The explosion, the worst LNG accident in nearly 30 years, ripped through the vast petrochemical complex in the port city of Skikda, 500 kilometres east of the capital Algiers. It shut down all activity at the oil and gas refinery complex. Nine workers are still missing.

"We are working to remove debris to look for survivors and bodies," Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil said. "We have halted the refinery of Skikda as a preventive measure to avoid problems that could result from the blast." He did not specify whether the oil installations were damaged and said the cause of the explosion was not yet known.

It is unclear when the 335,000 barrel-per-day refinery would reopen. A shipping agent said the oil port was shut for exports and imports but President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said Algeria would respect its supply commitments to foreign trade partners. Officials at the scene said they believed a boiler at one of the gas units was the origin of the blast, which was felt for kilometers and destroyed three of the refinery's LNG plants. OPEC member Algeria, hit by a decade of Islamic rebel violence, is a major oil and gas producer and is a key supplier of gas to Europe.