Five killed at mosque

ALGIERS (AFP) - Five worshippers were killed after Friday prayers at one of the main mosques in Algiers when police tried to arrest an imam who had made a political speech, according to unconfirmed reports.

Eyewitnesses said shots rang out after police forces began to check the identity of the worshippers as they emerged from a Sunni mosque in the district of Bab-el-Oued. The national news agency said the attempted arrest of the imam came after he delivered what was described by a policeman as a 'political, virulent and subversive' address to the thousands of worshippers. The mosque is a stronghold of the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front which was banned in March following the declaration of a state of emergency.