Plan for shacks angers Algiers villagers

Algiers – A riot has broken out on the eastern edge of Algeria's capital after police moved in to tear down squatters' shanties.

• Witnesses, including local shopkeeper Rachi Zeroual, say several dozen people appeared to have been hurt in Monday’s riot. Police say about 10 officers were injured.

  Witnesses say police used water canons and teargas to fight back rioters armed with stones. Many shops were vandalised.

  The violence broke out when police acting on a judge’s order arrived to raze shacks, some built illegally on a football pitch, in a working-class neighbourhood.

  Officials plan to tear down a shantytown and build housing in the neighbourhood two kilometres from the office of the North African nation’s president.