A huge stampede killed at least 717 people and injured hundreds more at the Haj in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, in one of the worst-ever tragedies at the annual Muslim pilgrimage.
The stampede, the second deadly accident to hit the pilgrims this month following a crane collapse in Mecca, broke out during the symbolic stoning of the devil ritual, the Saudi civil defence service said.
Bodies of pilgrims wearing traditional white clothing were left scattered by the crush, surrounded by discarded shoes, flattened water bottles and umbrellas that had been used for protection from the sun.
The civil defence service said that it was still counting the dead, who included pilgrims from different countries, and that at least 863 people had also been hurt.
Nearly two million people from across the globe were attending the Haj, one of the largest annual gatherings in the world. Iran said at least 43 of its citizens were dead and accused Saudi Arabia of safety errors that caused the accident.
‘Tripping all over each other’
The stampede began at around 9:00 am, shortly after the civil defence service said on Twitter that it was dealing with a “crowding” incident in Mina, about five kilometres from Mecca.
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims had converged on Mina on Thursday to throw pebbles at one of three walls representing Satan, for the last major ritual of the Haj which officially ends on Sunday.
A hospital official told AFP the incident happened outside the Jamarat Bridge structure, where the stoning takes place. A group of pilgrims leaving the area collided with another group that was either moving in the opposite direction or camped outside, the official said.
A Sudanese pilgrim in Mina said this year’s Haj was the most poorly organised of four he had attended.
“People were already dehydrated and fainting” before the stampede, said the pilgrim who declined to be named. People “were tripping all over each other”, he said, adding that a Saudi companion had warned him that “something was going to happen”. Helicopters were flying overhead and ambulances were rushing the injured to hospital, AFP reporters at the scene said.
At one hospital, a steady stream of ambulances discharged pilgrims on stretchers. The incident came as the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims marked Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, the most important holiday on the Islamic calendar.
It was the second major accident this year for Haj pilgrims, after a construction crane collapsed on September 11 at Mecca's Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest site, killing 109 people including many foreigners.
The Haj is among the five pillars of Islam, and every capable Muslim must perform it at least once in a lifetime. For years the pilgrimage was marred by stampedes and fires, but it had been largely incident-free for nearly a decade following safety improvements.
In the last major incident in January 2006, 364 pilgrims were killed in a stampede during the stoning ritual. In 1990, a huge stampede in a tunnel at Mina after a ventilation system failure killed 1,426 pilgrims, mainly from Asia.
Thursday's tragedy occurred outside the five-storey Jamarat Bridge, which was erected in the last decade at a cost of more than $1 billion and intended to improve safety during the pilgrimage.
Almost one kilometre (less than a mile) long, it resembles a parking garage and allows 300,000 pilgrims an hour to carry out the ritual.
Official figures released Thursday said 1,952,817 pilgrims had performed this year's Haj, including almost 1.4 million foreigners.
Foreign embassies were working to identify and assist their citizens caught up in the stampede.
In Tehran, Saudi Arabia's Shiite rival Iran said authorities at the Haj had closed off two paths near where the accident later took place.
“This caused this tragic incident," the head of Iran's Haj organisation, Said Ohadi, told Iranian state television.
President and PM condole deaths
Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his condolences after the disaster:
Distressing news from Mecca. Pained at loss of lives due to the stampede. Condolences to families of the deceased & prayers with the injured
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) >September 24, 2015
President Pranab Mukherjee also tweeted out his condolences:
Deeply saddened by tragic incident at Mina today, during which a large number of haj pilgrims lost their lives >#PresidentMukherjee
— President of India (@RashtrapatiBhvn) >September 24, 2015
