A car bomb ripped through a fruit and vegetable market north of Baghdad on Thursday evening killing at least 16 people, as shoppers searched for reduced goods, officials said.

A car bomb ripped through a fruit and vegetable market north of Baghdad on Thursday evening killing at least 16 people, as shoppers searched for reduced goods, officials said.

The evening blast in Samarra also wounded at least 26 people, a police officer and a doctor said. Among the dead were women and children.

The bomb went off in the middle of the market at 6:45 pm (1545 GMT), when poorer Iraqis typically frequent it in order to take advantage of reduced prices as stalls look to get rid of surplus stock before closing for the night.

The market, known locally as the Mraydi, lies in the Jiberia neighborhood and is the city's biggest grocery shopping market.

The violence comes a day after at least 75 people were killed and more than 200 wounded in a wave of shootings and bombings across Iraq, including a spate of bombings in Baghdad.