717 pilgrims crushed to death in Mecca, worst Haj tragedy in 25 yrs
Mina (Saudi Arabia):
863 Injured in Stampede Ahead of Stoning Ritual
At least 717 pilgrims were killed on Thursday in a stampede outside the holy city of Mecca, the worst disaster to strike the annual Haj pilgrimage in 25 years.
At least 863 others were injured at Mina, a few kilometres east of Mecca, when two large groups of pilgrims arrived together at a crossroads on their way to performing the `stoning of the devil' ritual at Jamarat.
The disaster was the worst to occur at the pilgrimage since July 1990, when 1,426 pilgrims were crushed to death in a tunnel near Mecca. Both stampedes occurred on Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice), Islam's most important feast.
Two weeks ago, 110 people died in Mecca's Grand Mosque when a crane work ing on an expansion project collapsed during a storm and toppled off the roof into the main courtyard, crushing pilgrims underneath.
The Haj, the world's largest annual gathering of people, has been the scene of nu merous stampedes, fires and riots in the past, but their frequency was reduced in recent years after the government upgraded infrastructure and crowd control technology. Safety during Haj is a po litically sensitive issue for the kingdom's ruling Al Saud dynasty , which presents itself internationally as the guardian of orthodox Islam and custodian of its holiest places in Mecca and Medina. Saudi Arabia's interior minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef bin Abdelaziz said a committee would carry out an investigation into the disaster.
Unverified video posted on Twitter showed bodies, clad in the white towelling of those undertaking haj, lying on the ground by the side of the road, surrounded by debris, as pilgrims and rescue workers attempted to revive them.
Iranian state news agency IRNA said at least 90 Iranians were among the dead and cited Iran's deputy foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian as saying Saudi Arabia was responsible.
Street 204, where the crush occurred, is one of two main arteries leading through the camp at Mina to Jamarat, the site where pilgrims ritually stone the devil by hurling pebbles at three large pillars. In 2006, at least 346 pilgrims died in a stampede at Jamarat.
An Arab pilgrim said he had hoped to perform the stoning ritual later on Thursday but was now too frightened to risk doing so. “I am very tired already and after this I can't go. I will wait for the night and if it not resolved, I will see if maybe somebody else can do it on my behalf,“ he said.
More than 100,000 police and thousands of video cameras are also deployed to allow groups to be dispersed before they reach dangerous levels of density .
Death toll continues to rise in Saudi Arabia hajj stampede
Indian and Pakistani authorities say the death toll from last week's stampede near the Muslim holy city of Mecca has climbed to 1,100. At least 863 pilgrims were injured in the crush.
An estimated 2 million people are undertaking the traditional hajj pilgrimage. Reuters, citing Saudi state television, reported that the stampede took place in Mina, a tent city located approximately three miles east of Mecca itself. The area is on the main road from the center 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 end of his life.
It was the second major disaster during this year's hajj season, raising questions about the adequacy of measures put in place by Saudi authorities to ensure the safety of the roughly 2 million Muslims taking part in the pilgrimage. A crane collapse in Mecca nearly two weeks earlier left 111 people dead.
Photos released by the Saudi civil defense directorate on its official Twitter account showed rescue workers in orange and yellow vests helping the wounded onto stretchers and loading them onto ambulances near some of the white tents.
Many of the victims were crushed and trampled to death as they were on their way to perform a symbolic stoning of the devil by throwing pebbles against three stone columns in Mina.
Two survivors interviewed by The Associated Press said the disaster began when one wave of pilgrims found themselves heading into a mass of people going in another direction.
More on this...
Saudi officials: Hajj stampede kills over 700 near Mecca
"I saw someone trip over someone in a wheelchair and several people tripping over him. People were climbing over one another just to breathe," said one of the survivors, Abdullah Lotfy, 44, from Egypt. "It was like a wave. You go forward and suddenly you go back."
Lotfy said that having two flows of pilgrims interacting in this way should never have happened. "There was no preparation. What happened was more than they were ready for," he said of the Saudi authorities.
King Salman ordered the creation of a committee to investigate the incident.
The Interior ministry's spokesman, Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, said high temperatures and the fatigue of the pilgrims may also have been factors in the disaster. He said there was no indication that authorities were to blame for the event, adding that "unfortunately, these incidents happen in a moment."
Another survivor, Ismail Hamba, 58, from Nigeria, recalled falling down and then being trampled over by marching pilgrims. "It was terrible, it was really, really terrible," he said.
Thursday's tragedy struck during a morning surge of pilgrims at the intersection of streets 204 and 223 as the faithful were making their way toward a large structure overlooking the columns, according to the civil defense directorate.
The multi-story structure, known as Jamarat Bridge, is designed to ease the pressure of the crowds and prevent pilgrims from being trampled.
Ambulance sirens blared and helicopters hovered overhead as rescue crews rushed the injured to nearby hospitals. More than 220 rescue vehicles and some 4,000 members of the emergency services were deployed soon after the stampede to try to ease the congestion and provide alternative exit routes, according to the directorate.
Amateur video shared on social media showed a horrific scene, with scores of bodies — the men dressed in the simple terry cloth garments worn during hajj — lying amid crushed wheelchairs and water bottles along a sunbaked street.
Survivors assessed the scene from the top of roadside stalls near white tents as rescue workers in orange and yellow vests combed the area.
International media covering the hajj, including The Associated Press journalists in Mina, were restricted from visiting the site of the accident for several hours and from immediately leaving an Information Ministry complex where the press is housed during the final three days of the pilgrimage, per government rules.
There has been a history of crowd tragedies during the hajj, which every Muslim is required to complete at least once in their life.
In 2006, 364 pilgrims were killed in a stampede at the entrance to a bridge leading to the site in Mina where pilgrims carry out a symbolic stoning of the devil by throwing pebbles against three stone walls. In 2004, 244 people were trampled to death on the final day of the hajj ceremonies.
In the lead-up to this year's hajj, at least 111 people are killed and scores wounded when a crane collapsed in bad weather and crashed onto the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest site.
However, none of these tragedies comes close to matching the deadliest recorded accident during a hajj. That happened in 1990, when 1,426 were trampled or suffocated in a stampede in an overcrowded pedestrian tunnel leading to Mecca's holy sites.
The latest tragedy is certain to have touched many different countries as the victims likely included pilgrims of different nationalities.
Sudanese pilgrim Mahmoun Mahmoud, 55, witnessed what he said appeared to be pilgrims from many different countries.
At least 89 Iranian pilgrims perished and 150 were injured in Thursday's crush, according to the official IRNA news agency. The chief of the Iranian hajj organizing agency, Saeed Ohadi, blamed Saudi Arabia for "safety errors" and said in comments to Iranian state TV that "mismanagement by the Saudis" led to the tragedy.
No Egyptian nationals died according to initial reports but Egypt's hajj delegation executive president, Maj. Gen. Sayed Maher, said 30 Egyptians were injured in the deadly stampede.
The United States expressed its "deepest condolences" for the victims of the "heartbreaking stampede" outside Mecca. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said the U.S. joins in mourning for "the tragic loss of these faithful pilgrims."
The U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was "deeply saddened" to hear of the deaths, his spokesman said in a statement.
In the Pakistani city of Lahore, Sajida Arif, said her father, Haji Arif, died in the stampede. "Before leaving for the hajj, he told me he had a wish to be buried in Mecca," she said.
Saudis face neglect charges after string of Haj accidents
Thursday's stampede at Mecca, the deadliest since 1990, when 1,426 pilgrims perished is likely to intensify fears that the kingdom does not have the public safety infrastructure to channel and protect what is the world's largest regular human migration.
The high death toll is likely to embarrass the Saudi government, which considers itself leader of the Muslim world and takes pride in hosting millions of pilgrims visiting Mecca and Medina each year. One of the titles of the Saudi monarch is “custodian of the two holy mosques,“ referring to his personal duty to protect the sites and pilgrims.The accident on Thursday occurred around the area where pilgrims go to perform a ritual -the Stoning of the Devil.
Mina provides temporary accommodation, with tens of thousands of air-conditioned tents, for many of the over two million pilgrims who make the Haj. Irfan al-Alawi, executive director of the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation and a critic of how the Saudi government has developed Mecca and Medina, said by phone from Mecca that the disaster was a result of “poor management“ by government, given the number of past disasters. Madawi al-Rasheed, anthropologist and visiting professor at London School of Economics, said: “There is no accountability. It's shocking that almost every year there is some kind of death toll.“
The Saudi government began a construction boom around Mecca about a decade ago, at the start of the reign of King Abdullah, who died in January . “The renovation and expansion are done under the pretext of creating more space for pilgrims, but it masks land grabs and vast amounts of money being made by the princes and other Saudis,“ Professor Rasheed said.
After a crane collapse earlier in the pilgrimage, the Saudi government punished the Binladin Group -a construction conglomerate working on the mosque expansion -denying it future contracts, banning travel for some executives.
Last Thursday , about 1,000 pilgrims from Asia had to leave their hotel because of a fire, which injured two Indonesians. This week, about 1,500 pilgrims were evacuated from a Mecca hotel after a fire broke out on the 11th floor of the 15-storey structure.
Prof Rasheed said the kingdom's officials had avoided responsibility in part by citing the Islamic doctrine that anyone who dies during the pilgrimage goes to heaven. On Thursday , the Saudi civil defence directorate said on Twitter, “We ask God to grant the martyrs his mercy .“ NYT
Iran accuses Saudi of neglect
Tehran: Iran accused Saudi Arabia of safety errors after 90 of its citizens died on Thursday at the stampede at Mina. Saying the kingdom was responsible for the tragedy, deputy foreign minister HA Abdollahian adding, “We can in no way be indifferent to this irresponsible behaviour of Saudi Arabia. This will be dealt with through diplomatic channels,“ he said on TV. AGENCIES
Tehran Blames Riyadh; Clerics For OIC Control Over Pilgrimage
Saudi Arabia, under growing pressure to account for a crush that killed more than 700 people at the haj pilgrimage, on Friday suggested pilgrims failing to follow crowd control rules bore some blame for the worst disaster at the event for 25 years.
The kingdom's regional rival Iran expressed outrage at the deaths of 131 of its nationals at the world's largest annual gathering of people, and politicians in Tehran suggested Riyadh was incapable of managing the event.“Death to the Saudi dynasty!“ hundreds of demonstrators chanted at a protest in the Iranian capital Tehran. A senior cleric angrily demanded Saudi Arabia hand over control of the annual pilgrimage to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the world's largest body of Muslim nations.Iran's state TV says the fore ign ministry summoned Riyadh's envoy to Tehran for the second time in as many days to hear the Shia powerhouse's protests over alleged “Saudi mismanagement“ that purportedly led to the deadly hajj stampede.
For its part, the OIC said it supported Saudi Arabia's efforts to keep some 2 million pilgrims safe at the annual hajj, a pilgrimage all able-bodied Muslims must perform once in their lifetime. However, the protests and the tensions show deep friction between the Sunni kingdom and the Shia powerhouse.
Saudi health minister Khalid al-Falih said an investigation would be conducted ra pidly and a final toll of dead and wounded calculated. At least 863 pilgrims were injured.
“The investigations into the incident of the stampede that took place in Mina, which was perhaps because some pilgrims moved without following instructions by the relevant authorities, will be fast and will be announced as has happened in other incidents,“ Falih said in a statement.
Falih's comments were likely to be seen by the kingdom's critics as an attempt to deflect responsibility for the incident: Safety during haj is politically sensitive for the kingdom's Al Saud dynasty , since the ruling family presents itself internationally as the guardian of orthodox Islam and custodian of its holiest places in Mecca and Medina.
Saudi King Salman ordered a review of haj plans after the disaster, in which two big groups of pilgrims collided at a crossroads in Mina, a few km east of Mecca, on their way to performing the “stoning of the devil“ ritual at Jamarat.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, in NY to attend the UN General Assembly , echoed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in blaming Saudi Arabia for the incident. “I ask Saudi Arabian government to take responsibility for this catastrophe and fulfil its legal and Islamic duties in this regard,“ Rouhani said.
Muslim pilgrims somberly resumed the final rites of haj on Friday after more than 700 people suffocated or were trampled to death when two waves of pilgrims collided in the deadliest disaster to strike the annual pilgrimage in a quarter-century .
The haj pilgrimage is a main pillar of Islam that all able-bodied Muslims must perform once in their lifetime. This year, around 2 million people from more than 180 countries took part in the five-day pilgrimage, which ends Saturday . The mood remained somber despite the haj coinciding with Eid alAdha, a Islamic holiday .
“Thursday's stampede was a catastrophe. We were shocked, but we can do nothing, this was their fate,“ said Lolo Omar, a pilgrim from Eritrea, said near the site of the disaster in the town of Mina, just outside Islam's holiest city , Mecca. “We wish that Allah will facilitate our pilgrimage.“ Omar, like the pilgrims in volved in Thursday's disaster, was headed toward a complex housing three columns that pilgrims pelt with pebbles in a symbolic stoning of the devil. Muslims believe the Prophet Ibrahim, or Abraham as he is known in the Bible, was confronted in this spot by the devil.
Among the 717 killed in Mina were pilgrims from Iran, Egypt, Turkey , India and Pakistan. Afghanistan's ministry of Haj and religious affairs said on Friday that eight Afghan pilgrims were still missing.
Egyptian survivor Wael Abdullah said he had reached Mina on Thursday when he saw people pushing and shoving to get past one another down one of the narrow streets. People tripped over those in wheelchairs, who also fell to the ground. “I saw people falling on the ground, other people trampling them... and the situation was out of control,“ he said.
Iran threatens to take Saudi to intl court; Haj toll 769
Dubai:
REUTERS
The death toll in a crush at the annual Haj pilgrimage outside Mecca rose to 769, Saudi Arabia said on Saturday , as arch-rival Iran said Saudi officials should be tried in an international court for what it called a crime.
The worst disaster to befall the Islamic event in a quarter of a century occurred on Thursday as two large groups of pilgrims arrived together at a crossroads in Mina, a few kilometres outside the holy city . “The latest statistics up to this hour reveal 769 dead. That is an increase of 52 on the previous figures,“ Saudi health minister Khalid alFalih told a news conference.“Those are the ones who died in various hospitals since the event,“ he said, adding that 934 people were wounded.
Shia Iran, locked in a series of proxy wars in countries around the Sunni Muslim kingdom, says that at least 136 Iranians are among the dead, sparking protests and outrage in the Islamic Republic on Friday . Over 300 other Iranians remain unaccounted for, including former ambassador to Lebanon Ghazanfar Roknabadi, Fars news agency reported. “We will ur ge international courts and circles to start the trial of the Saudis for their crimes against Haj pilgrims,“ Iran's prosecutor general Ebrahim Raisi was quoted as saying by student news agency ISNA on Saturday .
“This is not incompetence, it's a crime,“ Raisi told state broadcaster IRIB.
Incident beyond human control
: Top Saudi cleric
Saudi Arabia's top religious leader said a stampede that killed 769 pilgrims was beyond human control, official media reported on Saturday, the final day of this year's Haj. “You are not responsible for what happened,“ Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh told Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef in a meeting in Mina on Friday, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.“As for the things that humans cannot control, you are not blamed for them. Fate and destiny are inevitable,“ Sheikh told the prince, who is also minister of interior.
