Michelin families leave Algeria

French tyre company Michelin has said it is evacuating families of French nationals working for the firm in Algeria because of security concerns.

The move comes after nine people, including two French nationals, were injured in an attack on a convoy of foreign workers in September.

Al-Qaeda's North Africa wing said it had carried out the attack.

Michelin said its Algeria operations would continue and that none of its employees were leaving.

Bus attack

A spokeswoman for the company confirmed that families of staff who had settled in Algeria were being - or had already been - evacuated to France.

The BBC's David Bamford says some other European companies have adopted the same policy as it becomes clear that the return this year of Islamist-inspired violence in Algeria may not be a short-term phenomenon.

In the mid-1990s, many Westerners were abducted or killed, forcing a mass evacuation, he says.

In a recent video, al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, called on militants in North Africa to "cleanse" their lands of Spanish and French.

In March, a Russian gas pipeline worker was killed in an attack on a bus.