DHAKA: A bomb near a polling station in north Iraq killed two women on Wednesday, officials said, as voters cast their ballots under tight security following a surge of pre-election violence.

The blast occurred in the town of Dibs, near the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, according to a police official and a doctor at a nearby hospital, reports The Straits Times.

Elsewhere, militants seized another polling station in north Iraq, evacuated election staff and voters and set off explosives, destroying the building, according to a security official and an election commission employee.

BDST: 1613 HRS, APR 30, 2014