Man crushed to death by funeral crowd in Israel

Ultra Orthodox Jews ferry the body of a prominent Hasidic Rabbi Shmuel Halevi Wosner during his funeral in Bnei Brak, Israel, Sunday, April 5, 2015. A man was crushed to death in a stampede of surging crowd during the funeral, a police spokesman said. AP

JERUSALEM — Israeli police say a man was crushed to death in a stampede during a funeral procession for a Jewish religious scholar.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says more than 100,000 mourners flooded the streets of the central Israeli city of Bnei Brak, where the funeral took place late Saturday.

Rosenfeld said Sunday that a surge of people tried to enter and exit a building for an unknown reason, pushing some mourners up against a staircase and unable to move. Rosenfeld said paramedics struggled to reach the 27-year-old victim because of the crowd and he was pronounced dead at a hospital. Three others were seriously injured.

While such mass funerals for important rabbis take place regularly in Israel, rarely is anyone ever killed amid the huge crowds.