BAGHDAD, Iraq — Trampled, crushed against barricades or plunging into the Tigris River (search), more than 700 Shiite pilgrims died Wednesday when a procession across a Baghdad bridge was engulfed in panic over rumors that a homicide bomber was at large.
Most of the dead were women and children, Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman (search) 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 (search) 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.
Sobbing relatives wandered about, lifting sheets in search of their kin. When they found them, they would shriek in grief, pound their chests or collapse.
Casualty figures from official sources varied because survivors were taken to several hospitals, and officials were scrambling to establish accurate tallies.
Hamid Jassim, a doctor who was on the scene when panic erupted, said most of the dead were suffocated or trampled. "Many of the panicked people who jumped into the Tigris trying to save themselves survived with broken bones. Others drowned because they did not know how to swim," he told The Associated Press.
Hundreds of thousands of Shiites had been marching across the bridge, which links a Sunni district to Kazimiyah, a Shiite neighborhood which contains the tomb of Imam Mousa al-Kadhim, a 9th century Shiite saint.
TV reports said about 1 million pilgrims from Baghdad and outlying provinces had gathered near the shrine, about a mile from the bridge, for the annual commemoration of the saint's death.
"We were on the bridge. It was so crowded. Thousands of people were surrounding me," said survivor Fadhel Ali, 28, barefoot and soaked. "We heard that a suicide attacker was among the crowd. Everybody was yelling, so I jumped from the bridge into the river, swam and reached the bank. I saw women, children and old men falling after me into the water."
Police later said they found no explosives — either on any individual or in any cars parked nearby. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington that he was not aware of any evidence that the stampede was caused by a suicide bombing.
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite, declared three days of mourning.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has spoken with al-Jaafari "and offered our assistance. We pledge every effort by the United States and the multinational force in Iraq to aid the victims," McCormack said.
Shiite processions, which can draw huge crowds, are often targeted by Sunni extremists seeking to trigger sectarian war. Mortar shells had exploded near the shrine compound about two hours before the bridge disaster, killing at least seven people. U.S. Apache helicopters fired at the attackers.
In March 2004, suicide attackers struck at two shrines, killing at least 181 people.
