A suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up among a crowd of police recruits and policemen in the volatile province of Diyala on Monday, killing at least 25 people and wounding some 22 others, a provincial police source said.

The suicide bomber blew himself up in the Ishbiliyah Square in Baquba City where the recruits were gathering outside the police headquarters to sign up for joining the Iraqi police, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Most of the victims were police recruits and policemen, the source said.

Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, is the capital of Diyala province which stretches from the eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border. The province has been the hot bed of insurgency and sectarian violence since the US-led invasion in 2003.

(Xinhua News Agency October 29, 2007)