c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Stampede tragedies during recent mass religious celebrations:

_ Aug. 31, 2005: Nearly 1,000 Shiite pilgrims died during a religious procession in northern Baghdad when rumors of a suicide bomb caused a deadly stampede on a bridge.

_ Jan. 25, 2005: An estimated 300 Hindu worshippers died in a stampede after a fire broke out among roadside stalls. The pilgrims were ascending a narrow stairway toward a hilltop temple 160 miles southeast of Bombay.

_ Feb. 1, 2004: During the annual Muslim pilgrimage or hajj, 244 worshippers were crushed or suffocated as others surged toward a ritual site in Mina, outside of Mecca. The pilgrims were gathering to ritually “stone the devil” by throwing small pebbles at three pillars meant to represent Satan.

_ August 26, 2003: When a barrier collapsed during a Hindu festival in western India, a stampede broke out, resulting in 39 dead. The devotees were making their way toward the Godavari River to ritually bathe themselves.

_ Mar. 5, 2001: Thirty-five hajj pilgrims died in a stampede in Mina, Saudi Arabia, while attempting to ritually stone a representation of the devil.

_ January 14, 1999: More than 50 pilgrims died during a stampede and landslide at a hillside Hindu shrine near Trivandarum, India. The cause of the stampede was unclear. Some said a crowd-control rope snapped, others said a pile of coconuts collapsed, causing panic.

_ April 9, 1998: An estimated 150 hajj pilgrims died when a bridge parapet collapsed during the “devil stoning” ritual in Mina, outside Mecca. Some pilgrims fell to their deaths from the bridge, while others died in the resulting stampede.

_ April 15, 1997: A fire swept through an enormous tent city in Saudi Arabia, where hajj pilgrims were camped, killing 343 in the blaze and the resulting stampede.

_ May 23, 1994: Two-hundred-and-seventy hajj pilgrims died in a crowd surge while attempting to complete the ritual “stoning of the devil” in Mina, Saudi Arabia.

_ July 2, 1990: In a pedestrian tunnel leading to holy sites in Mecca, 1,426 hajj pilgrims died in a stampede _ the highest single event death toll for any hajj-related tragedy.

_ Andrea Useem

MO/JL END RNS

Editors: Check the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for a boxed graphic depicting same information. Accompanies RNS-STAMPEDE-ISLAM.