Stampede at Hajj Kills More Than 700 People, Officials Say

The Moroccan embassy in Ryiadh said there are no casualty among the Moroccan pilgrims. The world is on the main street from the middle of Mecca to the Hill of Arafat, revered by Muslims as the place where Muhammad gave his farewell sermon to Muslims who had accompanied him to Mecca near the complete of his life. A group of pilgrims stopped all of a sudden, causing a large number of them to have suddenly accumulated at one place.

The head of Iran’s Hajj organisation, Said Ohadi, said that, for “unknown reasons,” two paths had been closed off near the site of a symbolic stoning of the devil ritual where the stampede occurred. Our thoughts are with them and the more than two million people undertaking the Hajj this year.

The tragedy happened as Muslims around the world celebrated the key festival of Eid al-Adha, which is known as the Feast of the Sacrifice as it recalls Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son in obedience to Allah. The area houses more than 160,000 tents where pilgrims spend the night during the pilgrimage. Officials deployed 4,000 workers and 220 ambulances and other vehicles to Mina to help with the disaster.

Amateur video on social media showed scores of bodies – many still dressed in the simple terry cloth garments worn during hajj – lying amid crushed wheelchairs and water bottles on a sunbaked street.

The civil defense directorate says at least 805 other pilgrims were injured.

Saudi authorities take extensive precautions to ensure the security and the safety of pilgrims during the hajj, which is an obligation for every able-bodied Muslim.

Earlier, the external affairs ministry said it was monitoring the situation in Saudi Arabia where over 800 pilgrims were also injured in the stampede in Mina, some five kilometres from Makkah.

At Mina specifically, authorities have put measures in place over the years to try to alleviate the pressure posed by masses of pilgrims converging on the site of the stoning ritual.

The Royal office release also says the King sent a message of condolences and sympathy to the Custodian of the two holy mosques, King Salmane Ibn Abdelaziz Al Saoud.

The Saudi defense authorities said up to 13:30 p.m, the number of dead in the Mina stampede, which took place at 7 a.m. local time during the Jamarah hurling ritual, had reached 310 while 400 people were reported to have been injured.

“We have a stampede accident in Mina, and civil defense is dealing with it”, said Brig. “The fact is, despite everything Saudi Arabia has done, accidents and tragedies continue to happen”.

The Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage, has been beset by disasters since the 1980s, leaving thousands dead and more injured.

In the Pakistani city of Lahore, Sajida Arif, said her father, Haji Arif, died in the stampede.

In 2006, a particularly lethal stampede there killed at least 363 people.

And last Thursday, more than 1,000 fled a fire in an 11-story Mecca hotel that left two people injured.