Baghdad - Three people were killed and 25 injured when a car bomb exploded at a makeshift football pitch in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police said Sunday.

A suicide bomber drove his car onto the pitch, where youths from the al-Mualimeen neighborhood were playing on Saturday evening, Voices of Iraq news agency reported.

Despite stepped up security measures, al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups are still active in the restive city, located 405 kilometres north of the capital, Baghdad. (dpa)