Baghdad ? A suicide bomber killed an Iraqi police chief and two other officers Thursday as they surveyed the site of the wreckage of a blast a day earlier that devastated a predominantly Sunni neighborhood in the volatile northern city of Mosul.

The casualty toll from Wednesday’s explosion rose to at least 34 dead and 224 injured, said Hisham al-Hamdani, the head of the Ninevah provincial council. The blast obliterated a three-story apartment building and ravaged adjacent houses just minutes after the Iraqi army arrived to investigate tips about a weapons cache.

Brig. Gen. Salah Mohammed al-Jubouri, the police chief for surrounding Ninevah province, was killed as he left the blast site after being confronted by an angry crowd shouting “Allahu Akbar” or “God is Great” while he inspected damage near the crater.

The police chief was killed, along with two other officers, and five people were wounded, including three Iraqi police, an Iraqi soldier and a U.S. soldier, the U.S. military said.