Bomb in central Baghdad kills 23

A parked minibus packed with explosives blew up today in a busy section of central Baghdad, killing 23 people and injuring 68 others, police said.

The attack in Tayaran Square occurred about 1pm local time (10am Irish time) in an area filled with bus stops and shops, police said.

Cars were riddled with shrapnel, pushchairs flipped upside down and smoke rose into the sky, witnesses said.

Firefighters rushed to the scene and rescuers tried to pull the wounded out of cars, they said.

Yousef Qasim, 37, was working in his clothing shop 200 yards away when the blast tore through a line of buses waiting at the square, he said.

“I rushed there to see about four or five burning bodies,” he said. “I saw flesh on the ground and pools of blood.”