Dozens die in stampede at funeral,
Burial of top general killed by U.S. strike postponed after mourners crushed
More than 50 people were killed Tuesday and hundreds injured in a crush of bodies during a funeral procession for Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani in his hometown of Kerman, Iran, prompting officials to postpone the planned burial of Iran’s notorious military strategist, who was killed by a U.S. drone strike last week in Baghdad.
Unverified videos shared on social media showed mourners huddled around sprawled bodies on the street. They had come to mourn a national figure, but found themselves fighting for their lives or trying to resuscitate their compatriots.
It remains unclear what triggered the stampede-like event in southeastern Iran.
Hundreds of thousands of mourners have poured into the streets for funeral processions for Soleimani held in several cities over the past three days, during which crowds have carried the slain Quds Force commander’s coffin above their heads. While Iran’s authoritarian regime at times corrals people to join protests, inflating their numbers, analysts said the turnout spoke to a genuine sadness and anger among Iranians at the U.S. killing of a powerful official.
This was not the first time a massive, public gathering ended in a crowd crush. Other mass funerals, along with the Hajj pilgrimage, sporting events, festivals, rallies, have seen similar tragedies. But experts and public officials say they are entirely preventable.
G. Keith Still, a crowd safety and risk analysis specialist, said Tuesday’s incident appeared to follow an all-too-common pattern. .
“It’s kind of like squeezing toothpaste,” he said. “You get a very high pressure situation as people are moving through confined spaces. As soon as the density exceeds the physical boundaries … you can develop crowd crushing.”
Still said conditions can start to become dangerous when a crowd grows to more than six or seven people per square meter. A “shock wave” — as people push from behind while those ahead of them are unable to continue at the same pace — can create a deadly pressure cooker. Rather than being trampled, people in these conditions usually die from constricted asphyxia.
“Imagine that people are so tightly packed together that they can’t breath,” said Still. “The pressure is so great on people so they can’t expand their lungs.”
Despite significant research on the science and psychology of crowds, fatal gatherings continue to occur. Former Iranian supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini’s 1989 funeral procession also turned deadly when at least eight people were killed in the pressure-filled throngo f mourners who filled the streets in multiday processions under a scorching June sun.
In the Iraqi city of Karbala last September, at least 36 were killed and scores more injured after a rush broke out among
Shiite Muslim pilgrims gathered in the holy city for the annual Ashura commemoration.
In the Karbala case, the incident began at the end of the procession as people were preparing to enter a holy shrine. That’s when a few pilgrims fainted in the heat — a tragic twist that the crowd behind them couldn’t see. The waves of pilgrims kept flowing into what became a deadly crush.