News Digest

Two dead, scores hurt as 1.5 million attend fervent Black Nazarene festival

Two people died and hundreds were injured during a huge religious festival in the Philippines, where barefoot crowds hurled themselves at a statue of Jesus believed to have healing powers, authorities said Sunday. More than a million people turned out for the festival of the Black Nazarene on Saturday, one of the world’s largest religious gatherings, to see the life-sized statue wheeled through the streets of Manila. Risking life and limb, shoeless men and women chanting “Viva!” (Long Live) ran over heads and shoulders to touch the icon as it made its way through the capital of Asia’s most fervently Catholic country.

They probably thought if they take part in the procession, they would get better.

Philippine Red Cross secretary-general Gwendolyn Pang

Philippine Red Cross secretary-general Gwendolyn Pang said her agency, which had a field hospital at the site, treated almost 1,600 people who were injured during the festivities. 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. Police said at its height, about 1.5 million people took part in the seven-kilometre (4.5-mile) parade, which runs to the icon’s home inside the downtown Quiapo church. Many believe the Black Nazarene has miraculous powers and sick people will often resort to desperate measures to try to touch it.