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One person was killed and 48 others injured Friday as a parked car exploded in the southern Philippines, with the local authorities blaming the blast on Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic militants, AFP reported.

Witnesses told police a parked car went up in flames and was torn to pieces in a powerful mid-afternoon blast that shattered glass panels in a commercial section on Zamboanga city's outskirts.

"There was a suspected bomb in the car," Senior Superintendent Angelito Casimiro, the city police chief, told reporters.

The explosion occurred in front of a pub and across the street from a bus terminal, he said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast and the lone fatality was not immediately identified, he said.

Most of the other casualties were cut from flying glass shards and are being treated at nearby hospitals, Casimiro added.

Zamboanga city Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco alleged the blast was linked to a plan by the Abu Sayyaf armed group to spring 57 comrades detained at the city jail.

She demanded that the national government remove the prisoners from the city and transfer them to a detention facility elsewhere so the city would not be targeted by bombings.