ALGIERS, Jan 20: At least 27 people were killed and 74 injured when a huge explosion ripped through a liquefied natural gas plant near the eastern Algerian port of Skikda , in the country's worst industrial accident since independence in 1962, the state energy group Sonatrach said on Tuesday.

Algerian state radio said nine people were missing since the blast, which occurred on Monday evening. The minister for energy and mining, Chakib Khelil, told the radio after visiting the site that it was not yet possible to say what caused the blast.

He also said it was unclear how many people were working in the area at the time and rescue workers were digging through the wreckage in case more bodies were buried there.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika interrupted a visit to Algeria's third largest city, Constantine, to go to the disaster site. MR Khelil said the explosion destroyed three liquefaction units at the plant, a huge complex lying 500 kilometres east of Algiers which produced 23 per cent of the country's liquified natural gas (LNG). Output would have to be stepped up at the Arzew complex, near Oran in western Algeria, which produced the other 77 per cent, he said.-AFP