KIRKUK, Iraq- At least 20 people were killed and 40 wounded when a suicide bomber set off a truck bomb near a crowded marketplace in the northern Iraqi town of Tuz Khurmatu, south of oil city Kirkuk, police and medical sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

An interior ministry spokesman confirmed that a "violent explosion" took place in a Tuz Khurmatu vegetable market but did not immediately provide casualty figures.

(Reporting by Mustafa Mahmoud; Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Maha El Dahan) ((ahmed.aboulenein@thomsonreuters.com; +20 2 2394 8097; Reuters Messaging: ahmed.aboulenein.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))