Thursday, September 1 2005 15:06 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Baghdad: Thousands of grieving Iraqis were searching for their loved ones today (Sept 1, 2005) as mass funerals were due to be held for the nearly 1,000 Shiite pilgrims killed in a deadly stampede on a Baghdad bridge.

At least 965 people, mostly women, children and the elderly, were crushed to death, trampled underfoot or drowned yesterday (August 31, 2005) as panic swept through the crowds sparked by rumours of suicide bombers in their midst.

It was the largest single loss of life in Iraq since the United States (US)-led invasion, more than two years ago.

The crowds stampeded shortly after insurgents killed seven people in a mortar strike at the nearby Kadhmimiyah mosque where up to three million Shiites had gathered for a religious commemoration.

Another 815 people were injured in the tragedy and some 200 remained in hospital today (September 1, 2005), officials said, while bodies were still being pulled from the river.

Dozens of tents have been set up in Shiite-dominated neighbourhoods of the capital as grief-stricken Iraqis searched for their loved ones.

The air was full of cries of despair in Baghdad's Sadr City, a predominantly Shiite neighbourhood, as hundreds beat their chests in grief as death reports trickled in.

Iraq authorities said the tragedy, which could inflame sectarian tensions in the country, was a 'terrorist' act by toppled dictator Saddam Hussein's loyalists and Al-Qaeda's front man in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

"The terrorist pointed a finger at another person saying that he was carrying explosives and that led to the panic," Interior Minister Bayan Baker Solagh told Iraqia television.