Suicide blast at Baghdad University kills 11

Baghdad's universities and students have come increasingly under attack from Sunni extremist groups.

A suicide attacker ploughed a car bomb into a police checkpoint protecting Baghdad University on Wednesday, killing at least 11 people and wounding 30 more, medical officials said.

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Medics at the war torn Iraqi capital's Yarmuk and Ibn Nafis hospitals said most of the casualties were students but they and a security official confirmed that three national police officers were killed and seven wounded.

"People were hopping over and treading on bodies as they scattered to get away," said a young man who fled the scene.

The explosion took place on a major road leading through the Karrada area, a once prosperous part of Baghdad which was known as one of the most mixed areas of the city but is now increasingly dominated by Shiites.

Baghdad's universities have come increasingly under attack from Sunni extremist groups, and last week an Internet statement purportedly from the Ansar al-Sunna militant organisation explicitly threatened students.