At least 131 people have been confirmed killed and about 150 injured in car bombing in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, for which the Islamic State, ISIS, has claimed responsibility.

There are reports that the source of the blast, which struck close to midnight on Saturday, was a refrigerator van packed with explosives.

Many of those killed were children.

The mainly Shia area was busy with shoppers late at night because it is the holy month of Ramadan.

A second bomb also exploded at about midnight in a predominantly Shia area north of the capital, killing another five people.

The bombing in Karrada is the deadliest in Iraq this year.

It comes a week after Iraqi security forces recaptured the city of Falluja from Islamic State militants. Authorities say the city was used as a launch pad for attacks on Baghdad.

The jihadist group, which follows its own extreme version of Sunni Islam, said in an online statement that it carried out the attack and targeted Shite Muslims.

Iraq’s highest Sunni religious body, the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq, called the bombing a “bloody crime, regardless of who carried it out or what their motivations were”.

Several buildings, including the popular al-Hadi Centre, were badly damaged and families gathered on the street for news of missing loved ones.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was met by angry crowds while visiting the scene of the blast on Sunday.