Michelin families leave Algeria

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.

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