French fighter jet crashes in Algeria, no one hurt

PARIS, Dec 6 (Reuters) A French fighter jet crashed in an uninhabited part of Algeria today and no one was hurt, France's Air Force said.

The Mirage F1 CT was one of three Mirages flying back to France from their base at N'Djamena in Chad with a tanker plane.

''The pilot of a single-seat F1 CT combat plane was forced to eject for an as-yet unknown reason over Algerian territory during a convoy mission,'' the Air Force said in a statement.

It crashed south of the northeastern city of Constantine at around 1150 am (1620 IST) without causing any damage to others, and the pilot was recovered ''safe and sound'', it said.

An inquiry would be launched to determine the cause of the accident, the Air Force said.

REUTERS BDP RAI2158