ALGIERS -- Three massacres that killed 41 Algerian civilians were reported Sunday, bringing the death toll in attacks blamed on extremists to at least 70 since Wednesday.

In the deadliest attack, 19 vocational students and two security guards were killed in Medea, 90 kilometers south of Algiers. The attack occurred Saturday night but was first reported Sunday.

Eyewitnesses said armed men forced their way into the dormitory on the school grounds and opened fire on the young residents. Six other pupils were injured.

On Sunday evening, a short time after the report on Saturday's attack was released, 15 bus passengers were killed in the coastal city of Tenes. Armed men injured seven other people in the city 200 kilometers west of Algiers.

A short time later, five people died in an attack in the khemis Miliana region, 125 kilometers west of the capital. No details of that attack were released.

(DPA)