The question if it's a dangerous situation and whether you can continue to drive the Nissan Almera N17 with the noises, so far it's the Ford Focus mk3 that show this dangerous situation when the steering rack fails. There is no report or experiences of this same dangerous situation on this thread with other vehicles so I presume it's only the Ford Focus mk3.

If there's no error message that pops up on the screen and the steering wheel can still be turned, it should be alright.

Just to reiterate, the situation is only dangerous when the driver is unable to turn the steering wheel when the vehicle is still moving on the road, the steering wheel becoming very stiff. It will happen suddenly without any warning.