Five hundred dead in Iraq bridge stampede - reports

BAGHDAD - Up to 500 people died when a crowd of Iraqi Shi'ites stampeded off a bridge over the River Tigris in Baghdad on Wednesday, Iraq's deputy Health Minister Jalil Al-Shumari told Reuters.

The crowd, on its way to the Kadhimiya mosque for an important religious ceremony, panicked as rumours 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.

- REUTERS