A suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt in a Baghdad bus today as it was about to depart for a Shiite city in the south of Iraq, killing up to 30 people and wounding nearly 40.
Most of the dead were in the bus, which was gutted by flames, and the rest were gathered around a food stall nearby, police said at the scene. Kindi hospital said at least 37 were injured.
Iraqi policemen walk past a bus destroyed by a suicide bomb attack in central Baghdad today
The explosion occurred a week before national elections, and officials had warned of a surge in violence ahead of the balloting. Several other explosions rumbled through the heart of the capital this morning.
Witnesses told police that the attacker left a car and climbed onto the bus and blew himself up as the bus was about to leave for Nasiriyah, 200 miles south-east of Baghdad.
Fire swept through the bus following the blast, trapping passengers.
The attack occurred at the major bus station for vehicles heading to the mostly Shiite areas of the south. Last August the station was the scene of a horrific triple car bombing which killed at least 43 people and wounded 89.
Security forces are braced for an increase in violence ahead of the vote.
Two days ago, two suicide bombers killed at least 36 people at a police academy in the Iraqi capital in one of the worst attacks of its kind for weeks.
On the same day, three people were killed by a blast in a Baghdad cafe. Police blamed that attack on a suicide bomber, although the US military said the bomb was hidden in a satchel left at a table.
The attack came a week before Iraqis go to the polls to elect their first full-term parliament since the fall of Saddam Hussein.