AFP is also reporting injuries in Kabylie

Clashes erupted in Algeria's restive Kabylie region between security forces and youths opposed to Thursday's presidential election, leaving around 40 people wounded, local sources said.

Separate groups of youths seeking to disrupt voting in the Bouria region, southeast of Algiers, ransacked polling stations in three localities shortly after they opened at 0700 GMT, with the police firing to disperse them.

Forty-one people were injured in the unrest, including 28 policemen, with voting temporarily suspended in the affected voting centres, the sources said.

In the capital, where security forces have been heavily deployed, police arrested five protesters shouting anti-regime slogans, an AFP journalist reported.