At least 17 people have been killed and many more injured in a suspected suicide bombing in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, officials say. The blast ripped through a crowded bazaar in the town of Lashkar Gah. A spokesman for the provincial governor told the Associated Press news agency that the bomber had blown himself up opposite a police station. At least 47 people were wounded in the latest blast, six of them critically, Hanif Khan, a local hospital official, told the Associated Press news agency. Shattered glass and blood-soaked turbans were scattered at the site of the bomb, AP quoted security guard Hayatullah Khan as saying.