According to a statement by the Kurdish regional government, at least 14 people have reportedly been killed and more than 87 others were injured, some very seriously, as a suicide bomb attack exploded Wednesday in the northern town of Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region.

Independent news agency Voices of Iraq earlier said a truck bomb was detonated in between the offices of the Interior Ministry and a building housing Kurdish security services. Witnesses said the blast left a 3m deep crater in the street, the news agency reported.

"I was near the site of the explosion. I saw fire coming out from the blast area. A man was burned to death," a witness said.

Chief of Arbil police, Abdul Khaleq Talat, said that the truck was packed with 800 kg of explosives hidden under kitchen cleaning products.

Arbil is the seat of the Kurdistan regional government. The Kurdish autonomous region, controlled by militias loyal to the Kurdish party, is perceived as a rather stable area of northern Iraq.