BAGHDAD — Four people were killed and four others injured on Tuesday in a motorcycle explosion in Iraq's southern city of Basra, the Iraqi military and a medical source said.

The blast took place before noon when a booby-trapped motorcycle detonated at the al-Somoud intersection in central Basra, some 550 km south of the capital Baghdad, the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said in a statement.

The blast set fire to two nearby civilian cars, leaving four people killed and four others injured, according to the statement, quoting an initial report of Basra Health Department.

The statement said more information about the incident will be released later, while explosives experts and security forces are investigating the site of the blast. — Agencies