717 pilgrims crushed to death in Mecca
At least 717 people were crushed to death at the Hajj in Mecca yesterday, in one of the worst tragedies at the annual Muslim pilgrimage. A Saudi minister blamed the pilgrims themselves, saying they had not followed Hajj rules. A computerised crowd control system installed by a British company after the last major tragedy in 2006 did not cover the area of Mecca where yesterday’s deaths took place.
THE Saudi Arabian health minister yesterday blamed pilgrims themselves for the deaths of 717 people at the the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca.
“If the pilgrims had followed instructions, this type of accident could have been avoided,” Khaled al-Falih said in a television interview.
However, his remarks were roundly criticised by experts, and stood in stark contrast to the consensus that poor organisation was to blame.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said “improper measures” and “mismanagement” by Saudi authorities caused the deadly stampede and announced three days of mourning. “The government of Saudi Arabia must accept the huge responsibility for this catastrophe,” he said. About 90 Iranians died.
Saudi King Salman said he had ordered a review of the way the pilgrimage was planned. He also said he had asked for a swift investigation into the “painful” incident.
Witnesses told how two large groups of worshippers ran into each other at a narrow junction in the Holy city, leading to a “horrific” crush that left the streets strewn with corpses, in on of the worst tragedies at the pilgramage.
It was the ninth such incident at the pilgrimage site in the past 25 years, during which time more than 3,000 pilgrims have lost their lives.
The Daily Telegraph has learnt that a computerised crowd control system installed by a British company in the wake of the last major tragedy in 2006 did not cover the area of Mecca where yesterday’s deaths took place.
The incident is likely to raise questions about the authorities’ handling of the huge crowds of Muslims who visit Mecca every year. As of last night there was no indication that any of the 25,000 British Muslims who perform the Hajj every year had been hurt or injured.
But Humza Yousaf, an SNP MSP for Glasgow, whose own family were in Mecca at the time, called for a review of Saudi safety procedures. “There should be some very serious questions asked about whether the Saudis have the infrastructure to ensure the safety of those pilgrims,” he told the BBC. The crush happened in Mina, three miles from Mecca, which is also the location of three stone columns where pilgrims carry out a symbolic stoning of the devil by throwing pebbles. Two survivors said problems began when one crowd found themselves heading into a mass of people going in another direction.
“I saw someone trip over someone in a wheelchair and several people tripping over him,” said Abdullah Lotfy, 44, from Egypt. “People were climbing over one another just to breathe.”
The tragedy comes despite the Saudi authorities installing sophisticated crowd analytics software that can target where pinch-points and surges are likely to take place. It was installed by Crowd-Vision, a British firm, following the deaths of 346 pilgrims in 2006. But the firm told The Daily Telegraph yesterday that their equipment was centred around the Jamarat Bridge, an area leading to the stone columns that has suffered previous congestion problems.
A spokesman said she could not comment on why the technology had not been rolled out more extensively, and added that it was still too early to determine the exact cause of the accident.
It comes less than two weeks after a giant construction crane collapsed on the Grand Mosque in Mecca, claiming more than 100 lives. Saudi Arabia’s deadliest Hajj-related tragedy occurred in 1990, when 1,426 pilgrims died.