Iraq’s prime minister ordered fake bomb detectors sold to the country by a British businessman to be removed from checkpoints as the death toll from Saturday’s bombing in a busy Baghdad shopping street rose to at least 147.

Iraqi leader Haider al-Abadi also asked the interior ministry to launch a new investigation into “corrupt deals” to buy the fake bomb detectors, known as ADE 651, which are still in use in Iraq three years after British conman James McCormick was jailed for selling them.

Officials said on Monday that the death toll from the attack was likely to increase further, with dozens missing and at least 185 injured.

"We need a number of days to be able to recover the bodies of victims. It is a difficult task," a rescue worker told Agence France-Presse.

"The lists of victims I saw included whole families — the father and his sons, the mother and her daughters — whole families were wiped out by this explosion."