Jihadists fired rockets on Friday at a gas plant in southern Algeria jointly operated by foreign companies, but were forced back without inflicting casualties, workers said.

"At around 6 am, a terrorist group launched a rocket attack on the Krechba gas plant" near the town of In Salah, an employee told AFP by telephone.

The facility is jointly operated by Algerian firm Sonatrach, Britain's BP and Norway's Statoil.