BAGHDAD, Dec 2: Three massive car bomb blasts rocked the centre of the Iraqi capital on Saturday, killing at least 50 people and wounding another 87, security officials said.

A medic in the city’s Al-Kindi hospital confirmed 34 deaths and said 56 people were receiving treatment after the explosions, which ripped through a crowded street as Iraqis were hurrying home before nightfall.

A defence official told AFP the first blast had appeared to target an Iraqi army Humvee jeep patrolling in the central Rusafa district at sunset. There were soldiers among the casualties, but he could not say how many.

The second blast erupted immediately after the first with the third a few moments later, rocking windows 500 metres away on the opposite bank of the Tigris. Shortly afterwards gunfire erupted around the city.

Ten shops were burned out in the blasts near the Al-Wathba square, a historic commercial area popular with Shiite Kurds, and 13 civilian cars destroyed, said an interior ministry official, warning the death toll was expected to rise.—AFP