Baghdad, May 19 (IANS) As many as 25 people were killed and some 70 were wounded Thursday in two bomb blasts in Iraq's northern city of Kirkuk.

"Our latest report said that 25 people were killed and some 70 wounded by the double blasts in Kirkuk," Xinhua quoted a source as saying.

The attack took place during the morning rush hour when a bomb attached to a car blew up at a parking lot in front of a police headquarters in Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad.

Later, a booby-trapped car parked at the scene went off as Iraqi security forces and dozens of onlookers gathered at the site of the first blast, the source added.

The powerful car bomb explosion destroyed parts of the police headquarters.

Many of the dead and wounded were policemen.

"Five of the killed were police officers, including Major Ibraim Hazim, the secretary of the Kirkuk's police chief," the source said.

The area has long been the hotbed of insurgency since the US-led invasion in 2003.