Huge Catholic parade held under heavy security in Manila

Two male devotees on Saturday became the first fatalities in the annual religious procession of the Black Nazarene, the image of Jesus Christ, in this predominantly Catholic nation that was projected to draw at least from 10 to 15 million people.

On Saturday, thousands of devotees joined the procession early morning as another thousand devotees queue along the routes until the Black Nazarene was back to its Shrine at the Nazareno Parish Church along C.M. Recto here.

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.

The statue, crowned with thorns and bearing a cross, is believed to have been brought from Mexico to Manila by Spanish missionaries on a galleon in 1606.

The Asian nation’s dominant church and authorities said they expected millions of people to take part in the parade of the statuette, considered by Catholics as a representation of the Son of God.

The tight security was partly due to potential threats after the recent Paris attacks by the Islamic State terror group, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

The ship that carried it caught fire, but the charred statue survived and was named the Black Nazarene.

A exhausted devotee fainted during the procession and died from an unspecified ailment.

Philippine Red Cross secretary-general Gwendolyn Pang said her agency, which had a field hospital at the site, treated nearly 1,600 people who were injured during the festivities. Some believe the statue’s survival from fires and earthquakes through the centuries, plus intense bombings during World War II, is a testament to its mystical powers.

Dante Avila, a 22-year-old factory worker, said he was wrongly implicated in the shooting to death of a child in a gang brawl in November in his neighborhood in suburban Caloocan city.

Devotees climb on top of one another to touch the religious icon (top C) of the Black Nazarene during the annual religious procession in Manila on January 9, 2016.

“Twenty-two trains are deployed at present but we’ll see 28 to 30 trains tomorrow”, the company said in an e-mailed reply on Friday.