Four British pilgrims die and 12 hurt in Saudi road crash

♦ Four Britons have died and 12 others were injured in a coach crash while on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

A woman aged in her 60s from Blackburn, an elderly woman and her adult son, from Preston, and an elderly man, also from Preston, died in the crash near the town of Al Khalas, said Hashim Travel, a Blackburn-based travel firm.

The group was travelling from Mecca to Medina on an Umrah pilgrimage.

The Umrah is a Muslim pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia undertaken at any time of the year, compared to the Hajj, which must be done on certain dates of the Islamic calendar.

Hashim Travel said that the coach that the four Britons were travelling on was hit by a fuel tanker, which then caught fire and set the bus alight.

The driver of the petrol tanker is also said to have died, while other coach passengers were treated for fractures. It is understood that a young child is among the injured.