Fans of Algeria's soccer team celebrate in downtown Algiers after their team defeated Burkina Faso in their 2014 World Cup qualifying second leg playoff soccer match
Algeria fans celebrate their team's defeat of Burkina Faso in the 2014 World Cup qualifying second leg playoff  (Reuters)

Celebrations for the Algerian football squad's last-minute qualification for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil has resulted in 12 dead and 240 injured.

A nerve-wracking win against Burkina Faso was celebrated across the North African country with horn-blowing fans driving their cars round and round the streets in heavy rains.

The Algerian government said that five fans were killed when a van slipped off the road into a gorge in the town of Bejaia, east of Algiers. Another four people were killed in a car accident in the city of Biskra. The remaining three died in other towns but there were no further details.

Algeria defeated Burkina Faso 1-0 in the second leg playoff and qualified on away goals. Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon Ghana are the other African nations to qualify.

Algeria qualified for the World Cup in 1982 and 1986.

In Marseille, 2,000 fans gathered at the Old Port to celebrate the Algerian victory but clashes erupted with police after a group of youths threw stones, according to sources, and two police officers were slightly injured.

Thirty Algerian supporters attacked a police car in Besançon, breaking a window and slightly injuring a policeman. In Lille, 24 cars were burnt, but the incidents were not clearly related to the football game, said police sources.

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