Death toll of Baghdad bridge stampede nears 1,000

Updated: 2005-09-01 07:51

Ambulances remain on standby among the crowd of Iraqi pilgrims near the Kadhimiya mosque in Baghdad August 31, 2005. More than 600 Iraqi Shi'ites died in a stampede over a Tigris River bridge in Baghdad on Wednesday, panicked by rumours a suicide bomber was about to blow himself up, an Interior Ministry source told Reuters. A large crowd had been heading towards the mosque for a religious ceremony when someone yelled there was a suicide bomber among them. [Reuters]

An Iraqi man carries the body of a young girl following the stampede. [AFP]