DHAKA: A suicide bomber has blown himself up at a football stadium south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, killing at least 30 people and injuring 95 others.

The blast in Iskandariya happened in the early evening on Friday at the end of an amateur football game, Falah al-Khafaji, the head of security for Babel province, said.

The Islamic State (IS) of Iraq and Syria - which controls large areas of the country’s north and west - later claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mobile phone footage widely shared by Iraqis on social media showed players in football kits gathering to collect trophies and footballs as at least one child stood nearby.

One man throws a new football to the crowd, before the camera shakes violently and the footage ends, at what witnesses said was the moment a bomber in the crowd detonated an explosives belt.

Several photographs posted to social media showed mangled goal posts smeared with blood. One image showed a close-up of a football, also covered with blood.

“The suicide bomber cut through the crowd to approach the centre of the gathering and blew himself up as the mayor was presenting awards to the players,” Ali Nashmi, an 18-year-old eyewitness, told the media, reports Al Jazeera.

The mayor, Ahmed Shaker, was among the dead.

“I was maybe 50 meters from the spot. The blast was extremely loud,” Haidar Kadhem, a 20-year-old who survived the explosion, said.

“Most of the crowd were young people, I could see them strewn across the field, some dead, others wounded asking for help. It was just chaos.”

BDST: 1432 HRS, MAR 26, 2016
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