One Dead After Runaway Horses Trample Paradegoers

Bellevue, Iowa, 4th of July celebration ends in bloodshed

By Marie Morris, Newser Staff

Posted Jul 4, 2010 5:12 PM CDT
Updated Jul 5, 2010 4:00 AM CDT

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Runaway Horses Trample Paradegoers — A child is hauled away on a stretcher after horses trampled parade spectators at a Fourth of July parade in downtown Bellevue, Iowa, Sunday, July 4, 2010. (AP Photo/The Telegraph Herald, Mike Burley)

Two horses pulling a buggy in the Fourth of July parade through the streets of Bellevue, Iowa, got loose and rampaged through the crowd yesterday morning, injuring 23 people and killing the 60-year-old wife of the carriage driver. Thirteen of the victims are children, reports the Telegraph Herald of Dubuque. One of the horses apparently rubbed the bridle off the other, which left the driver unable to control them.

"There were two horses coming at us at full speed, right at the curb," a spectator tells the Des Moines Register. "People were grabbing kids. You looked up and it was just like a flash." As of last night, four people remained in critical condition. (More Iowa stories.)

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