Baghdad: Two bombs went off within minutes of each other in a Baghdad commercial district today evening, killing 15 people and wounding 35,police and officials at three hospitals said.

At least one of those killed died at the hospital, an official said.

A roadside bomb exploded in the primarily Shiite, middle-class neighborhood of Karradah and was followed a couple of minutes later by a bomb in a nearby garbage can.

A police officer said the blasts also damaged seven shops and four parked cars. Like the rest of those who provided information, he spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn t authorized to release information.

Many of the victims were teens or young adults and four were women, police and hospital officials said.

Clothing store owner Hassan Abdullah was standing near his shop when the first explosion went off about 150 meters (yards) away. He starting walking toward the scene when the second blast occurred.

"I saw a leg and a hand falling near me as I was walking. The whole place was a mess," said Abdullah, 25."Wounded people were crying for help and people started to run away. Police pickups and ambulances arrived at the scene to pick the casualties."

Abdullah said Karradah was crowded because it was the start of Iraq s Friday-Saturday weekend and the weather was clear and pleasant.

"The aim of such attacks is the random killing of as many people as possible in order to terrorise the Iraqi people," he said.

Source : PTI