At least 650 people were killed and 235 injured after a suicide bomb panic triggered stampede on a bridge over the Tigris in Baghdad on Wednesday, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.

"Someone among the people walking on the Aaimma bridge in al- Aadhamiya district suddenly shouted 'there is a suicide bomber on the bridge.' Then lots of people on the bridge panicked and they pushed each other and jumped into the Tigris. At least 650 people died because of drowning and stampede and the death toll will probably rise," the source said on condition of anonymity.

Most of the people died in the stampede were women and children, according to the source.

"Most of them were women and children who drowned or died in crash," the source said.

The death toll is still rising, added the source.

About 1 million pilgrims from many parts of Baghdad and other provinces gathered near the Imam Mousa al-Kadim shrine in the capital's Kazimiyah district for the annual commemoration of the death of the seventh of the most sacred 12 Shiite Imams.

At the time of the tragedy, a huge number of people were rallying and marching toward the mosque.

Being the deadliest incident since the US-led war on Iraq in March 2003, it came at a time when tensions were running high between the country's major religious and ethnic communities before a referendum on a draft constitution.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite, declared a three-day mourning period following the accident, state TV said.

Earlier in the day, five Iraqi civilians were killed and at least 36 wounded when mortar rounds landed in different areas in Baghdad, the Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.

Source: Xinhua