Update [2005-8-31 10:2:31 by Oui]:
Majority of the victims are children – women – elderly!
BAGHDAD, Aug 31 (Reuters) – The death toll in a stampede on a Baghdad bridge is expected to reach 1,000, a general manager at Iraq’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
“An hour ago the death toll was 695 killed, but we expect it to hit 1,000,” according to Dr Jaseb Latif Ali.
Relatives and rescuers at the side of the Tigris look for survivors.
Scores drowned in Tigris river
There was confusion over what caused the railing to collapse on the bridge to the city’s heavily Shiite Kazamiyah district, but police also said there were unconfirmed reports that the stampede may have been caused when someone in the crowd shouted there was a suicide bomber among them.
After the collapse, thousands of people rushed to both banks of the river to search for survivors. Hundreds of men stripped down and waded into the muddy water downstream from the bridge, trying to extract bodies floating in the water.
More news to follow below the fold » »
“We saw the dead scattered on the ground and the injured were taken to al-Kadimiyah hospital for treatment. There are more injured children than the men and women,” the medical worker said.
Television reports said about one million pilgrims from Baghdad and outlying provinces had gathered near the Imam Mousa al-Kadim shrine in the capital’s Kazimiyah district for the annual commemoration of the Shiite saint’s death.
People crushed to death against concrete wall on bridge when panic broke out of suspected suicide bombers when mortar exploded.
The incident happened on a bridge over the Tigris River as hundreds of thousands of Shia pilgrims marched as part of an annual religious festival.
BAGHDAD (AFP) – More than 630 people were killed after a stampede was sparked by a deadly mortar strike near a Shiite shrine in Baghdad, many of them drowning after falling off a bridge, a security source said.
It was the largest single death toll since the insurgency in Iraq was unleashed after Saddam Hussein’s ouster in April 2003.
Rebels fired three mortar rounds close to the Kadhimiyah shrine, as thousands of Shiites were gathering to celebrate the death anniversary of the seventh imam, Mussa Kazim.
The latest round of violence came a day after US air strikes on suspected Al-Qaeda hideouts in Iraq near the Syrian border killed at least 56 people. “At least 56 people were killed in the air strikes carried out by US forces near Qaim close to the Syrian border,” a security source told AFP.
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People crushed to death against concrete wall on bridge when panic broke out of suspected suicide bombers when mortar exploded.
BBC News Coverage
The incident happened on a bridge over the Tigris River as hundreds of thousands of Shia pilgrims marched as part of an annual religious festival.
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It’s after 3 in the morning here and I can’t sleep because of all the horrible news I’ve been reading and seeing due to Katrina. Then I see this as a breaking story..I can’t imagine what the people of Iraq have been going through for the last several years now and then this hideous disaster. That entire country is going to have-no doubt already do have- post traumatic stress syndrome.
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But society can cope with disaster a lot better when it’s unified – more equality – and not divided as Bush & neocons have succeeded since 2000, here at home and in the world on planet Earth.
Think of your personal family issues, the local community and try to re-focus. Take whatever you do to get some sleep, you’ll be needed by your loved ones in the morning.
I’ll put up some reference to another delta disaster – Bangladesh ::
Bangladesh takes on poverty and disaster – every year!
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Oh Oui, this is horrible news. I am literally sick to my stomach. Allthis senseless violence, all for waht?
Good God!
We have reaped the whirlwind.
another photo op with King George playing the harmonica.
Thank you for the diary Oui, my “news” spent 16 seconds on it today. Sixteen seconds.
Good one.
Thanks for posting this Oui…
I blinked and missed it on the News.