Over 50 people were killed in a car bomb blast near a police station in Haifa street in central Baghdad on Tuesday.

"The blast took place at 10 a.m. (0600 GMT) as dozens of people were queuing outside a recruitment center near the police station," Lt. Col. Abdul Amir Hussein said.

"More than 50 people were killed and dozens of others wounded in the blast," Hussein said, adding that most of the casualties were police recruits and civilians in a nearby market.

At least nine cars were destroyed in the powerful blast which sent thick plumes of black smoke into the sky.

The area was littered with shoes, clothes and body parts, as well as scattered fruit and vegetables from the market.

Ambulances with sirens wailing ferried the dead and wounded to hospital.

Haifa street was the scene of a fierce battle between US forces and Iraqi insurgents on Sunday, in which at least 13 people were killed and 55 others wounded, according to the Health Ministry.

A militant group of al-Qaida ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi Tuesday claimed responsibility for an earlier car bomb attack in central Baghdad which killed over 50 people, said a statement posted on an Islamist website.

"With the grace of God, a lion from the martyrdom-seeking brigades succeeded in striking a recruitment center for the renegade police force volunteers," said the statement signed by the military wing of the Tawhid and Jihad group.

The statement could not be verified yet.

(Xinhua News Agency September 15, 2004)