More than 630 people died in a stampede on a bridge in Baghdad on Wednesday, following a mortar attack on a Shi’ite shrine in the Iraqi capital.
The victims were reported to be Shi’ite pilgrims who had been making their way to the shrine to observe an annual religious ritual.
Initial reports said the stampede was triggered by rumours of suicide bombers mingling in the crowds on the A’imma bridge. The victims were either suffocated in the crush or fell off the bridge into the River Tigris.
Interior ministry sources said the death toll had reached 637 and 183 people were injured. Some media reports, though, said at least 647 people were killed and 301 injured, quoting unnamed security officials.
Brigadier General Khalid Hassan told The Associated Press at least 340 people died, but Iraq’s deputy health minister, Jalil al-Shumari, told Reuters that more than 500 may have died. An interior minister said the death toll had risen to 648 with 322 injured, The Guardian reported.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari has announced a three-day mourning period, and Minister of Health Abdul Mutalib Mohammed Ali has demanded the resignation of the ministers of interior and defence, holding them responsible for the stampede.
‘The children couldn’t get any air’
Witnesses said thousands of pilgrims were heading across the bridge to the Kadhemiya neighbourhood to celebrate the anniversary of the death of Imam Moussa al-Kadhem more than 1 000 years ago.
The witnesses said people fainted and then died, including many children, as a result of the crush and the scorching 50-degree-Celsius heat. Others fell from the bridge.
”Thousands of people were standing on top of each other on the A’imma bridge, in the crush and in the heat some fainted, above all the children who couldn’t get any air,” one eyewitness reported.
Ambulances, taxis and private cars helped ferry the victims to nearby hospitals.
Earlier, al-Arabiya news channel showed images of a hospital where bodies were strewn along the corridors.
An eyewitness said bodies covered the floors of al-Noman hospital in al-Adhamiya, while more were laid out in front of the building. A medical source at the hospital said most of the victims died from suffocation.
Doctors at Baghdad’s hospitals lost count of the corpses passing through their wards.
”Most people are suffering from blunt trauma and the majority are women and children,” said Dr Mazen Abdulilla, adding that medical services had been anticipating trouble at the event but were still struggling to cope.
”We have a shortage of painkillers and we still can’t identify most of the bodies,” Abdulilla said.
About 1,5-million Shi’ite pilgrims were said to be in the area on Wednesday to observe the ritual. Even as rescuers continued efforts to recover bodies from the river, many continued to flock to the shrine.
The pilgrimage attracts Shi’ite Muslims from Iran and other Islamic nations. It was unclear if there were any foreigners among the dead.
Sea of shoes a grim reminder
Thousands of sandals were littered across the A’imma bridge, a chilling reminder of the hundreds of men, women and children who lost their lives in the stampede.
”The crowd started to panic and women and children were being trampled underfoot,” said Abdul Walid (54), lying dazed on the floor of a nearby hospital. ”My son was on my shoulders, I don’t know where he is now — everybody was suffocating to death, so I eventually had to jump.”
In the middle of the bridge, the waist-high concrete barriers designed to foil car bombers were stained with the blood of victims, mostly women and children, crushed to death in the panic.
Covered in bandages and nursing a broken leg, Walid tearfully recounted the tragic events that led to Iraq’s deadliest single incident since the 2003 United States-led invasion.
”Even before we heard the rumours, the crowds had come to a standstill — there was no more room to move and people couldn’t breathe,” said Walid.
Ahmed Jasim (28) said he was in the middle of the bridge as huge crowds converged from both ends, some leaving the mosque and others making their way there.
”I was trying to pick up the children but was swept off my feet,” said Jasim, whose shoulder and arm were fractured. ”I’m young and strong, so I managed to force my way to the side and jumped into the Tigris — another five minutes and I would have been crushed to death.”
Several cases of criminal poisoning were also reported and witnesses said Shi’ite militia members used loudspeakers to urge people not to drink water they had purchased near the scene.
Mortar attack
The deadly stampede happened after unidentified attackers fired mortars near the Shi’ite shrine where the pilgrims were heading, killing at least seven people.
A US military statement confirmed that several mortar shells landed near the mosque, and that US troops fired on the attackers.
”Task Force Baghdad helicopter crews fired on the attackers, and coalition ground units also sped to the area to assist in tracking down the terrorists responsible for the attack,” said the statement.
It added that US forces arrested ”more than a dozen individuals for questioning”.
In other news on Wednesday, the US military confirmed that one US soldier was killed in a roadside bomb attack near Iskandariya, south of Baghdad, on Tuesday.
Another statement said the US army will continue air strikes in the western cities of al-Qaem and Husayba where strikes, directed at targets housing al-Qaeda members, are in their fifth day. — Sapa-DPA, Sapa-AFP