Three days mourning for Baghdad victims

Following the death of at least 125 people in a huge bomb in Baghdad on Sunday, the Iraqi government has declared three days of national mourning.

150 people were also wounded in the attack.

A lorry packed with explosives was detonated in the Karrada district while families were shopping for the holiday marking the end of Ramadan.

Rescuers said whole families had been wiped out and many victims were burned beyond recognition.

So-called Islamic State (IS) has said it carried out the suicide attack.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited the mainly Shia area on Sunday but his convoy was greeted by angry crowds.

His office later announced the three days of mourning, adding that Abadi understood the angry reaction of residents.

As night fell on Sunday, teams of workers were still clearing debris from the site and searching the charred remnants of buildings.

The bombing at around midnight on Saturday was the deadliest in Iraq this year and came a week after Iraqi forces recaptured the city of Falluja from IS.

Reports said a refrigerator van had been packed with explosives and left near the popular al-Hadi Centre.

Footage from the scene in the minutes after the blast showed the whole area engulfed in flames.

“We need a number of days to be able to recover the bodies of victims. It is a difficult task,” a member of the civil defence forces quoted by AFP news agency said.

“The lists of victims I saw included whole families - the father and his sons, the mother and her daughters - whole families were wiped out by this explosion.”

A second bomb exploded shortly afterwards in another predominantly Shia area north of the capital, killing another five people.