There has been a major stampede at the hajj killing at
least 717 people, in the worst tragedy to strike
the annual Muslim pilgrimage in a quarter of
a century.
The disaster, which also left several hundred
people wounded, was the second deadly
accident to hit worshippers this month, after a
crane collapse in the holy city of Mecca killed
more than 100.
At the scene, bodies lay in piles, surrounded
by discarded personal belongings and
flattened water bottles, while rescue workers
laid bodies in long rows on stretchers, limbs
protruding from beneath white sheets.
The stampede broke out in Mina, about five
kilometres (three miles) from Mecca, during
the symbolic stoning of the devil ritual. The
Saudi civil defence service said it was still
counting the dead, who included pilgrims
from different countries.
Iran announced that 90 of its nationals were
among the victims, and accused regional rival
Saudi Arabia of safety errors, while pilgrims
at the site blamed the authorities and said
they were afraid to continue the annual
religious rituals.
King Salman ordered “a revision” of hajj
organisation, the official Saudi Press Agency
said, while Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Nayyef, who chairs the kingdom’s hajj
committee, started an inquiry.
Saudi Health Minister Khaled al-Falih blamed
worshippers for the tragedy, telling El-
Ekhbariya television that if “the pilgrims had
followed instructions, this type of accident
could have been avoided”.
The stampede began at around 9:00 am (0600
GMT), shortly after the civil defence said on
Twitter it was dealing with a “crowding”
incident in Mina.
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims had
converged on Mina to throw pebbles at one of
three walls representing Satan, for the last
major ritual of the hajj, which officially ends
on Sunday.
Interior ministry spokesman General Mansur
al-Turki said the stampede was caused when
“a large number of pilgrims were in motion at
the same time” at an intersection of two
streets in Mina.
“The great heat and fatigue of the pilgrims
contributed to the large number of victims,”
he said. Temperatures in Mina had reached
46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit)
Thursday.
Witnesses, however, blamed the authorities,
while one outspoken critic of redevelopment
at the holy sites said police were not properly
trained and lacked the language skills for
communicating with foreign pilgrims, who
make up the majority of those on the hajj.
“They don’t have a clue how to engage with
these people,” said Irfan al-Alawi, co-founder
of the Mecca-based Islamic Heritage Research
Foundation.
“There’s no crowd control.”
After the incident helicopters patrolled
overhead and ambulance sirens wailed as the
injured were rushed to hospitals, AFP
reporters said.
At one facility, a steady stream of ambulances
discharged pilgrims on stretchers.
The disaster 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
hajj pilgrims, after a construction crane
collapsed on September 11 at Mecca’s Grand
Mosque, Islam’s holiest site, killing 109 people,
including many foreigners.
– Iran blames Saudi –
The hajj is among the five pillars of Islam,
and every capable Muslim must perform it at
least once in a lifetime. Official figures
released Thursday said 1,952,817 pilgrims had
performed this year’s hajj, including almost
1.4 million foreigners.
For years the event 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, and in 1990, 1,426 mainly
Asian pilgrims died in a tunnel stampede at
Mina after a ventilation system failure.
There was little immediate information on the
nationalities of the dead, though India said 14
of its nationals died, while Jakarta said three
Indonesians were killed. Officials in Turkey
said at least 18 of its citizens were reported
missing.
In Shiite-dominated Iran, supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed “improper
measures” and “mismanagement” by Saudi
authorities, who he said “must accept the
huge responsibility for this catastrophe”.
Condolences came from capitals around the
region and the globe, including from UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, while Pope
Francis expressed solidarity with Muslims and
voiced the “closeness of the church” in the
face of the tragedy.
The stoning ritual emulates the Prophet
Abraham, who is said to have stoned the devil
when he tried to dissuade Abraham from
God’s order to sacrifice his son Ishmael.
At the last moment, God spares the boy,
sending a sheep to be sacrificed in his place.
Muslims worldwide commemorated
Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son by
slaughtering cows, sheep and other animals
on Thursday as part of Eid al-Adha.
Eid celebrations were also marred in
neighbouring Yemen, where an Islamic State
suicide bomber struck a mosque in the capital
Sanaa in an attack targeting Shiite rebels,
leaving 25 dead.
