At least 17 people were killed and dozens more wounded on Thursday when a truck bomb exploded in a busy Baghdad market area.

Seventeen people were killed and 40 more wounded at least on Thursday when a truck bomb exploded in a busy Baghdad market area, Iraqi police and hospital officials said.

Reuters news agency reported “at least nine people were killed and another 27 wounded” in the attack.

The blast near a restaurant in the Shula district was the first serious attack on the Iraqi capital since mid-May when a suicide bomber hit a police checkpoint.

Witnesses and police said the suspected bomber left a vegetable delivery truck packed with explosives at the market place minutes before it detonated.

"It was a huge explosion, I was knocked out and woke up in a car on my way to hospital," one of the wounded victims, Haider Fadhil, said.

Iraqi interior ministry official told France Presse that “two people were killed and another 7 wounded after 3 IEDs exploded in Amiriya neighborhood, west of the capital Baghdad.”

“Four police men were also injured in an IED explosion targeting their patrol in Dawra neighborhood, south of Baghdad,” he added.

The official also said that another four by passers were wounded in an explosion in Ghazaliya neighborhood, west of the capital, while one man killed and four others injured in booby-trapped car explosion in Yarmouk neighborhood, west of Baghdad.

Violence in Iraq has fallen sharply since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein. Suicide bombings and blasts claimed hundreds of lives daily in 2006-2007.

Since the last U.S. troops left in Iraq in December, extremists have often targeted local security forces and government buildings, and have also sought out civilian visitors.