Two dead, hundreds injured in Philippines religious festival
Two people have died and hundreds have been injured in a huge religious festival honoring a centuries-old Jesus icon in the Philippines, authorities say.
The incident occurred on Saturday in the Black Nazarene, an annual religious festival in which some 1.5 million people gathered to see the life-size statue of Jesus Christ wheeled through the streets of the Philippine capital, Manila.
One of the largest religious gatherings in the world, the festival is attended by barefoot devotees who hurl themselves at the statue believed to have healing powers.
Father Douglas Badong, rector of the Manila church where the statue is based, said one of the street vendors at the festival suffered a fatal heart attack.
"Because of the crowd, the heat, his body couldn't take it," he said.
Badong added that another 27-year-old man, reportedly suffering from a liver ailment, passed out and could not be revived.
According to Gwendolyn Pang, the Philippine Red Cross secretary-general, almost 1,600 injured people were treated in a field hospital at the site.
She said some 55 of them were "major cases," such as fractures caused by the huge crush of people or strokes caused by stress, more than double the number last year.
Many of them were already ill, Pang said, adding: "They probably thought if they take part in the procession, they would get better."
Manila police officials said about 5,000 police forces and soldiers had been deployed to secure the daylong procession of the Black Nazarene following the Paris attacks.
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