Reuters reports up to 500 people died when a crowd of Iraqi Shi'ites stampeded off a bridge over the Tigris river in Baghdad on Wednesday, fleeing rumors of a suicide bombing threat:
"So far we have 500 dead," Jalil Al-Shumari, the deputy minister, told Reuters.
The crowd, on its way to the Kadhimiya mosque for an important religious ceremony, panicked as rumors spread that a suicide bomber was preparing to blow himself up.
Earlier at least seven people died in three separate mortar attacks on the crowd.
Comments