At least 18 people have been killed and scores injured as four huge explosions rocked central Baghdad in continuation of a series of high-intensity attacks since the arrival of top US official Paul Wolfowitz to Iraq. In an unrelated incident, a US soldier was killed on Sunday night in a mortar attack west of Baghdad. The impact of the Monday morning explosions, near a Red Cross building and three police stations, was maximum as it happened during rush hour. One blast near an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) building killed 10 people and wounded at least 15, an ICRC official said. One witness said the bomb appeared to have been packed into an ambulance. **In the rubble*** In the northeast of the Iraqi capital, a US military policeman said eight people had been killed in a blast near a police station. Journalists at the scene of the explosion saw four people being carried out of the rubble and it was not clear if any of them were alive. The car bomb exploded killing several officers outside a police station in Baghdad's Karkh neighbourhood, a policeman said. A white car drew up at the al-Elam police station and exploded at 8:30 am (0530 GMT), policeman Abd al-Zahar Salim said. The car crashed into the station's parking lot and burst into flames as 40 policemen gathered to start work. Two American military vehicles were in the lot and two US soldiers were also there, he said. A US military policeman said eight people were killed. "There are eight dead, several walking wounded," Sergeant Mike Toole said. Witnesses said the first blast went off at about 8.30 am (0530 GMT), when a car drove towards the ICRC building. "I was standing at the gate when a car came driving very fast and smashed against the wall and exploded," said an ICRC guard who gave his name as Sabah. "I saw an ambulance car coming very fast towards the barrier and it exploded," another guard said. ICRC official Pascal Jansen told reporters 10 people had been killed. "The death toll is 10 - two Iraqi guards working for the Red Cross and eight casual labourers going past in a lorry." He said 15 Iraqi staff of the ICRC had been wounded, while international staff had only superficial injuries. "The force of the blast was so huge their clothes were blown right off," the photographer Chris Helgren said. Witnesses to another blast said they had seen a vehicle heading towards a police station in the Baya district in southwest Baghdad. "It was a Landcruiser car that was speeding towards the police station. The (guards) fired on it four times. It turned right and blew up," local resident Muhammad Ali said. Three wrecked cars were outside the building, one of them completely destroyed. A car engine lay smoking nearby. The explosions plunged the city into chaos on the first day of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, as ambulance sirens wailed and black smoke billowed into the air. A US military spokesman confirmed there had been a series of blasts, but had no details. The blasts hit occurred a day after several rockets smashed into al-Rashid hotel, inside a heavily fortified compound which also houses the headquarters of the United States-led occupation administration. **PHOTO CAPTION*** People rush to the scene of an explosion near the Red Cross building in Baghdad in this image made from television, Monday, Oct. 27, 2003. (AP Photo/APTN)