Concerns raised after hundreds killed in Saudi Arabia

Medics rush to the site where pilgrims were crushed and trampled to…

Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry said the crush of pilgrims appeared to have been caused by two waves of pilgrims meeting at an intersection.

Leading the criticism was regional Shiite powerhouse Iran, which always seeks an opportunity to undermine its Sunni adversary.

Saudi authorities are investigating what sparked Thursday’s disaster in Mina, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Mecca.

The state television website said Iran asked the “Saudi government to immediately cooperate to allow for the bodies of killed pilgrims to be repatriated”.

Several African countries confirmed deaths in the stampede, as did India, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Netherlands.

“They should not lie and say, “It was because this or that, the weather was hot, it was the pilgrims” faults'”.

He said Islam is the religion of brotherhood, peace, mercy, justice and charity, wishing the Arab and Islamic nations security and stability. Gen. Mansour al-Turki said at a news conference.

“As Muslims we believe these things come from God but also this is neglect by the (Saudi) government”.

However, Iyad Madani, the secretary-general of the 57-nation OIC, supported the Saudi efforts in a statement Friday.

“But regardless, people were still continuing to … their ritual, where the stampede happened”.

However, officials in Saudi Arabia have denied the report. With over two million Muslims performing Haj this year, each year only a miracle keeps pilgrims safe given the high density of moving bodies in the Haj area. Stampedes involving hundreds of thousands of pilgrims had happened in the past in that city but this year’s catastrophe is the most tragic.

“We were shocked, but we can do nothing, this was their fate”, said Lolo Omar, a pilgrim from Eritrea, speaking near the site of the disaster in Mina. This will be a sombre Eid, where the death of so many pilgrims will weigh hard on our souls. He said another 30 Egyptians were injured. People tripped over those in wheelchairs, who also fell to the ground. “I saw them dying in front of my eyes”, he told Reuters.

That’s where Thursday morning’s deadly stampede took place, killing 717 people and injuring about 900 more.

King Salman ordered “a revision” of hajj organization, the official Saudi Press Agency said, while Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayyef, who chairs the kingdom’s hajj committee, started an inquiry.

While Saudi authorities are still investigating Thursday’s accident, Health Minister Khalid al-Falih has blamed it on the masses themselves, telling a Saudi broadcaster that “some pilgrims had moved in the wrong direction amid the crowds”.