WEB DESK /

At least 125 people have been killed and about 150 injured in an explosion in Baghdad. A truck packed with explosives blew up in a busy shopping street in Karrada, a predominantly Shia neighbourhood in central Baghdad, in the early hours today.

The area was busy with shoppers late at night because it is the holy month of Ramadan. A second bomb also exploded this morning in a predominantly Shia area north of the capital, killing another five people and wounding 16 others.

Officials said, many of the victims were children, and there were fears the death toll could rise as more bodies could be lying under the rubble of devastated buildings. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack. The bombing in Karrada is the deadliest in Iraq this year.