At least 17 people are dead and 47 wounded after a suicide bombing in a busy market in southern Afghanistan early Monday, officials said.

The suicide bomber walked into the market located near a police station in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, and detonated the explosives he was carrying.

Hanif Khan, a local hospital official, said six of the wounded were critically injured.

The dead included the owner of the market, his son and a nephew, according to  Hayatullah Khan, a security guard at the scene. The market owner was a former police chief in the capital.

With files from the Associated Press