From The BBC News

At least 17 people have been killed and many more injured in a suspected suicide bombing in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, officials say. The blast ripped through a crowded bazaar in the town of Lashkar Gah.

A spokesman for the provincial governor told the Associated Press news agency that the bomber had blown himself up opposite a police station. Helmand province has seen some of the worst of the violence that has killed hundreds in Afghanistan this year.

At least 47 people were wounded in the latest blast, six of them critically, Hanif Khan, a local hospital official, told the Associated Press news agency.

Shattered glass and blood-soaked turbans were scattered at the site of the bomb, AP quoted security guard Hayatullah Khan as saying.

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