Iraq stampede kills at least 648 Shiite pilgrims

[OKNancy]

To help with the duplicates and to give an accurate headline.



Iraq stampede kills at least 648 Shiite pilgrims
BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least 648 people died when a railing collapsed Wednesday on a bridge packed with Shiite worshippers marching in a religious procession, sending crowds tumbling into the Tigris River. Most of those killed were women and children, Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman said.

One survivor said panic ensued when people heard that a suicide bomber was in the crowd. Tension was running high in the crowd because of a mortar attack two hours earlier.



Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9126948/

[Charlie Brown]

1. 24 Iraqi Shiites die in stampede - Police

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ALI128987.htm

BAGHDAD, Aug 31 (Reuters) - At least 24 Iraqis died on Wednesday when dozens threw themselves off a bridge into the Tigris river in Baghdad after rumours spread of a suicide bomber among a crowd celebrating a Shi'ite ceremony.

[maddezmom]

2. The Guardian has a flash of 500

LATEST: Up to 500 reported dead in a bridge stampede at a Shia shrine in Baghdad. More details soon
http://www.guardian.co.uk/

[maddezmom]

3. AFP:500 dead in Iraq bridge stampede-Health Ministry

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050831/wl_nm/iraq_stampede_deaths_dc

[VolcanoJen]

4. MSNBC reports 308 dead in stampede...

... story seems to be developing.

Horrific at any rate.

[Brightmore]

5. Reuters reporting 500 dead

Up to 500 Iraqi Shi'ites die in stampede -minister

[Kurovski]

8. 635 deaths and the number is rising.

reporter mentioned something about "poisoning" and that it was a "very strange story", but gave no details (CNN Daybreak.)

All these people dead from fear and panic. Poor Iraq, the nation has had one hell on earth replaced by yet another.

[qanda]

6. CNN just reported 635 dead

[maddezmom]

7. AFP:Over 630 killed in Shiite stampede and mortar attack in Iraq

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 annivesary of the seventh imam, Mussa Kazim.

more:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050831/wl_afp/iraq_050831090831

[saigon68]

9. HAPPENS ALL THE TIME in saudi-- religious fanatic Stampedes

LINK: http://www.stpetersburgtimes.com/2003/02/18/news_pf/Worldandnation/Stampede_deaths.shtml



July 2, 1990, Mecca, Saudi Arabia: 1,426 pilgrims killed in a stampede in an overcrowded pedestrian tunnel leading to holy sites. It is the worst hajj tragedy.

May 23, 1994, Mecca, Saudi Arabia: 270 killed in a stampede as worshipers surge during stoning of the devil ritual.

April 9, 1998, Mina, Saudi Arabia: About 180 trampled to death when panic erupted after several pilgrims fell off an overpass.

March 5, 2001, Mina, Saudi Arabia: 35 killed in stampede during stoning of the devil ritual.

March 31, 2001, Multan, Pakistan: 30 people killed when crowd of worshipers surged through the gates of a shrine.

Feb. 11, 2003, Mina, Saudi Arabia: 14 Muslim pilgrims trampled to death at a ritual near the end of the hajj pilgrimage.

[fujiyama]

12. It doesn't surprise me that something like this can happen

Religious pilgramages are full of EXTREMELY devout (or perhaps more appropriately fanatical) people and the environment is very claustraphobic. I've been in similar environments before (not Muslim though), but I would imagine the atmosphere is similar.

One threat of a terrorist will be enough to cause a stampede and as we can see the consrquences are terrible. There really needs to be a sensible crowd control for these events but I suppose that might be difficult where people push and shove anyone just to get inside or see the holy site.

[leftchick]

10. CNNI 635 Dead

and over 200 wounded. :(

[leftchick]

11. New Link,... over 600 Dead

More than 600 people died today when a crowd of Shia Muslims stampeded off a bridge over the River Tigris in Baghdad, apparently panicked by a rumour that a suicide bomber was preparing to blow himself up.

Jalil Al-Shumari, Deputy Health Minister, told the Reuters news agency that 500 deaths had already been confirmed. Police said the toll in the worst disaster of the Iraqi insurgency would climb over the 600 mark.

The crowd was on its way to the Kadhimiya mosque for an important religious ceremony when the rumours spread of a suicide bomb attack. Earlier, at least seven people died in three separate mortar attacks on the crowd.

Amid conflicting reports, it was unclear whether those who died had thrown themselves off the al-Aima bridge, or whether the bridge's railings had simply collapsed in the crush.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1758443,00.html

[MaineDem]

13. Some 600 Iraqis die in stampede-ministry source

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - More than 600 Iraqi Shi'ites died in a stampede over a Tigris River bridge in Baghdad on Wednesday, panicked by rumors a suicide bomber was about to blow himself up, an Interior Ministry source told Reuters.

"Now it's 640," the source said.

Police and hospital sources earlier said at least 575 people had died in the stampede and 255 were injured.

One hospital said it had received at least 100 bodies by 12:30 (0830 GMT). A hospital source said bodies were also being sent to two nearby hospitals.

http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=9519727&src=rss/topNews

[Clark2008]

14. Havoc is being reaked worldwide

This whole week has been sad, sad, sad for millions of people.

I'm sure it's sad for millions every day, but the destructive nature of mankind has thrown our planet off its axis for the time.

[screembloodymurder]

24. ....twenty centuries of stony sleep

The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all convictions, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.



Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all around it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

[shadowknows69]

15. So sad

I doubt you'll see our leader say even a word about this horrible tragedy except maybe to say under his breath he wished it had been Sunnis

[Tripmann]

16. Most of the dead are women and children

http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0831/iraq.html

[Connie_Corleone]

17. 647 dead last I heard. nt

[tjdee]

18. More than 600 killed in Iraq stampede.

"BAGHDAD: More than 600 Iraqi Shi'ites died in a stampede over a Tigris River bridge in Baghdad on Wednesday, panicked by rumours that a suicide bomber was about to blow himself up, an Interior Ministry source told Reuters.

"Now it's 640," the source said.

Police and hospital sources earlier said at least 575 people had died in the stampede and 255 were injured. "


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1215435.cms


On CNN they said most of the dead are women, children, and the elderly. This was apparently some kind of religious event, lots of people around.

Thanks Bush! Thanks a lot!

[graywarrior]

19. Iraq stampede kills at least 648 Shiite pilgrims

BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least 648 people died when a railing collapsed Wednesday on a bridge packed with Shiite worshippers marching in a religious procession, sending crowds tumbling into the Tigris River. Most of those killed were women and children, Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman said.

One survivor said panic ensued when people heard that a suicide bomber was in the crowd. Tension was running high in the crowd because of a mortar attack two hours earlier.



Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9126948/

[MADem]

20. Civil war, it's only our service personnel caught in the crossfire

...who haven't been notified. Insurgents? How about pissed-off sunnis, who are irritated that they no longer hold sway in a shi'a majority nation.

[Orrin_73]

21. Thats so sad

22. Why are there so many hurricane posts on the greatest page

and so few about Iraq's constitutional crisis and the Sunnis, and now this?

[superconnected]

23. mostly women and children killed

Great.

[Jack Rabbit]

25. BBC link

From the BBC Online
Dated Wednesday August 31 13:33 GMT (6:33 am PDT)

Hundreds dead in Baghdad stampede

More than 600 people have been killed in a stampede of Shia pilgrims in northern Baghdad, Iraqi officials say.

The incident happened on a bridge over the Tigris River as about one million Shias marched to a shrine for an annual religious festival.

Witnesses said panic spread because of rumours that suicide bombers were in the crowd. Many victims were crushed to death or fell in the river and drowned.

Health officials said the death toll could go as high as 1,000.

Read more.

The link will automatically update.

[Rose Siding]

26. msnbc: Iraqi official: Stampede toll likely to reach 1,000

snip>
"An hour ago the death toll was 695 killed, but we expect it to hit 1,000," Dr. Jaseb Latif Ali told Reuters.

The stampede occurred when panic engulfed a Shiite religious procession amid rumors that a suicide bomber was about to attack, officials said. It was the single biggest confirmed loss of life in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion.

Scores jumped or were pushed to their deaths into the Tigris River, while others were crushed in the crowd. Most of the dead were women and children, Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9126948/

[Sabriel]

27. The "stampede" usage bothers me

It has a certain dehumanizing aspect to it. Isn't there a better term that's just as descriptive?

[Zynx]

29. Panicked rush?

[Judi Lynn]

47. Thank goodness you mentioned it. I abhor media use of that word

It most surely is disrespectful. It's fairly recent, too, and hasn't been used in stories on Americans.

Only "foreigners" stampede. Americans "panic." We're so much more intelligent, more evolved, word use would imply.

[leftchick]

28. CNN saying it is now over 800 dead

:(

[sabra]

30. Update: Iraq stampede toll hits 1,000: health official

http://www.geo.tv/main_files/world.aspx?id=87086

Iraq stampede toll hits 1,000: health official

BAGHDAD: The death toll in a stampede on a Baghdad bridge has reached 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," Dr Jaseb Latif Ali told Reuters.

Earlier, an Interior Ministry official told Reuters most victims were women and children who "died by drowning or being trampled" after panic swept a throng of thousands as they headed to a religious ceremony, the official said.

By 2:15 pm (1015 GMT) the official death toll had risen to 647, with 301 injured, the official said.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

31. mostly women and children

mostly women and children.

Just what have we wrought there? For we are to blame for the total breakdown of society. The repurcussions lay squarely at the feet of Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Bush.

[proiowadem]

32. Single largest loss of life since march 2003 in Iraq

695 Dead, 180 Hurt in Iraq Bridge Stampede
<http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050831/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_050831143539>

[uppityperson]

33. BBC says over 1000 now

Atleast 695 confirmed, still getting bodies out of river. I am so sorry Iraqis and world. BBC has pictures, crap crap crap

Edited to add: 3 day mourning period declared.

[Uncle Joe]

34. 841 Dead In Baghdad Stampede

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/08/31/iraq.main/index.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 841 people were killed and 323 others injured in a stampede on a Baghdad bridge after a massive Shiite religious commemoration erupted into panic Wednesday.
Most of those killed were women and children, police sources said. Authorities expect the death toll to reach 1,000, Health Ministry official Jased Latif Ali said.
Witnesses said the stampede started after someone screamed that a suicide bomber was in the crowd of pilgrims heading to the Kadhimiya mosque in northern Baghdad.
A railing on the bridge then collapsed under the crush of people, and hundreds fell to their deaths in the Tigris River about 30 meters (yards) below, CNN's Jennifer Eccleston reported. (See video of the bridge still jammed with people after the panic.)
According to police, some people were crushed to death but most drowned. Emergency crews rushed the wounded to five hospitals as relatives at the riverbank searched for their kin.
The stampede occurred at about 11:30 a.m. (3:30 a.m. EDT) near the mosque, where pilgrims were gathered to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Moussa al-Khadhem, a prominent figure in Shiite history.
He is buried at the Kadhimiya mosque, the largest Shiite mosque in the capital.
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced a three-day mourning period, and President Jalal Talabani said the stampede "will leave a scar in our souls and will be remembered with those who died in the result of terror acts."
The death toll could rise as the crews search the Tigris for more bodies.
Health Minister Abdul Muttalib Ali confirmed that "the chaos that happened at the Al-A'imma bridge" began because of a "rumor" of a bombing.
"This led to a very horrible chaos," he said, causing people "to run in an uncontrolled way and this led to suffocation of so many people and drowning of some of them in the river."
The incident took place three hours after a mortar attack near the same mosque killed seven people and wounded 36 others, police said.
The U.S. military said helicopter crews saw insurgents "firing rockets and mortars that landed near a mosque," causing "several impacts" on the mosque.
The helicopter crews took aim at the insurgents, and coalition ground units raced to the area and searched for those responsible for the attack.
"At the suspected point of origin, coalition forces discovered evidence of a tube used for launching rockets," the military said, adding that more than a dozen people were detained for questioning.
The attack didn't stop pilgrims from continuing their rituals, marked in part by self-flagellation and chest-thumping in their walk to the shrine in the hours before the stampede.
The prime minister's office said a committee has been formed to investigate the stampede and mortar attack.

[tabasco]

35. Why don't they report about all the good new out of Iraq?

Damn librul media.

I heard that a schoolhouse got painted somewhere.

[lancdem]

36. Oh my God

[gasperc]

37. what a true tragedy

this will have terrible terrible reparcutions, where was the security?

[myrna minx]

38. I think I am going to crawl under my bed now.

I am so sick of this fucking war. :cry: :cry:

[Helga Scow Stern]

39. Heard on NPR--someone had also poisoned the pilgrims' sweets...

It is tradition to leave out sweets for those making the trek, and someone had poisoned them, causing over 100 deaths (?) before the bridge disaster. I was surprised when I came to DU and didn't see this massive loss of life reported on the Greatest page.

[daleo]

44. There is probably lots more here than meets the eye.

It will take a while to get all the various claims and counter-claims and come to any conclusions, though.

On edit - I am just saying I have learned not to trust any news coming out of Iraq.

[paineinthearse]

40. 769 dead, 307 hurt in Iraq bridge stampede

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=LABAT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-08-31-09-58-29

AP video

If link does not work, try http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=LABAT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-08-31-09-58-29

Aug 31, 1:58 PM EDT

769 dead, 307 hurt in Iraq bridge stampede

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Trampled, crushed against barricades or plunging into the Tigris River, more than 700 Shiite pilgrims died Wednesday when a procession across a Baghdad bridge was engulfed in panic over rumors that a suicide bomber was at large. Most of the dead were women and children, Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman said. It was the single biggest confirmed loss of life in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. Dr. Swadi Karim of the Health Ministry operations section said 769 were killed and 307 injured.

Tensions already had risen among the Shiite marchers because of a mortar attack two hours earlier near the shrine where they were heading. Then the crowd was slowed by barriers about a quarter of the way across the Two Imams Bridge, Interior Minister Bayn Jabr said on state-run TV. "Pushing started when a rumor was spread by a terrorist who claimed that there was a person with an explosive belt, which caused panic and the pushing started," Jabr said. "Some fell from the bridge, others fell on the barricades" and were trampled to death.

The barriers are meant to keep Sunni and Shiite extremists out of each other's neighborhoods at opposite ends of the bridge. The two-lane, 300-yard-long bridge was littered with abandoned hundreds of sandals lost in the pushing and panic. Children who had plunged 30 feet off the bridge floundered in the muddy waters, trying to reach dry land.

Survivors were rushed in ambulances and private cars to hospitals. Thousands raced to both banks of the river to search for survivors, and bare-chested men jumped in to try to recover bodies. Scores of bodies covered with white sheets lay on the sidewalk outside one hospital whose morgue was jammed. Many were children, old men and black-gowned women.

more....

[Guitarman]

41. Another shining example

of all the "progress" we are making in bringing stability to the region. Oh, and why we must "stay the course."

[sarcasmo]

42. It's already a Civil War, more soldiers will need to die before we get

OUT of Iraq. The next President will be smart enough to pull the troops out of that nightmare.

[natrat]

43. WTG George

[TheDonkey]

45. Very tragic news

[defiant1]

46. That's awful....

WTG George!!!!

[jarab]

48. kick

...O...

[arikara]

49. Hundreds killed in Baghdad stampede - (death toll is now nearly 1000)

At least 965 Iraqis have been crushed to death or drowned in a stampede on a Baghdad bridge after rumours of suicide bombers in their midst sent vast crowds of Shia pilgrims into panic.

In Iraq's deadliest day since the US-led war of March 2003, hundreds of women, children and elderly people were trampled underfoot or jumped to their deaths from the bridge on Wednesday after a deadly mortar strike on a Shia shrine.

Iraq authorities said the tragedy - which risks inflaming sectarian tensions in the country - was a "terrorist" act by toppled ruler Saddam Hussein's loyalists and al-Qaida frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

A security official said 965 were killed and 465 injured in the crush of pilgrims who converged on the Kadhimiya mosque in northern Baghdad for a ceremony mourning the death of a revered Shia imam

<snip>
It was the single biggest confirmed loss of life in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion.

<snip>

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E2ED7EA5-15F6-4A89-A532-C927FD299679.htm

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

50. All this as a result of an allegedly pro-life president!

Go figure :slaps head:

[aquart]

51. Insane.

They've had trouble before. Traffic control of these pilgrimages never occurred to anyone?

[onager]

52. Not that easy, I'd guess.

Once the panic...or religious mania...sets in, a crowd is really hard to control. I lived in Saudi Arabia for a couple of years, and the govt. TV channel would always show scenes from Mecca during the hajj. The crowds were enormous. I used to wonder why more people weren't killed in the crush.

Last month I was working in Egypt, and went out for a walk by myself at night in Alexandria.

Suddenly a HUGE mob of people were running, all around me. For just a second, I wondered if some religious maniac had whipped up a mob against the Western Infidel Devils. I was obviously the only American around, and really stuck out in the crowd.

As it turned out, they were all just running toward a big traffic accident.