Four British pilgrims killed in Saudi crash

RIYADH: Four British pilgrims were killed and 12 others injured in Saudi Arabia when their bus collided with a fuel tanker, officials said yesterday. The crash occurred on Saturday near the western Saudi town of Al Khalas while the pilgrims were on their way to the holy city of Makkah. “The royal

embassy of Saudi Arabia in London is working with (Britain’s) Foreign Office to issue emergency visas immediately to both the relatives of the four pilgrims who died as well as to families of the 12 British pilgrims who were injured,” the embassy said in a statement. “The injured have been taken to a hospital in Makkah where everything possible is being done to care for them.”

The statement said 17 British pilgrims were aboard the bus. “My sincere sympathies and thoughts are with the families of the four British pilgrims who tragically died in a coach crash in the kingdom on Saturday and for the

pilgrims who were injured,” Saudi ambassador to Britain, Mohammed bin Nawaf, tweeted. “Our prayers are with these families at this tragic time.”

In a brief statement, a spokesman for the British Foreign Office said: “We are supporting the British families of those who have died and those injured following a serious road traffic accident”. The director of Blackburn-based Hashim Travel Gulfaraz Zaman called the incident “horrendous” and “very distressing”. “If you see the remains of the bus, there’s just the metal frame of it that’s left,” he told the BBC. “It’s very upsetting - especially the people that have passed away,” he added. “Our thoughts are with the families”.

Every year, millions of Muslims flock to Makkah and Madinah further south, Islam’s second holiest site, to carry out the annual hajj pilgrimage or the umrah. In Jan 2017, a two-month old baby was among six British nationals killed in a road accident in Saudi Arabia while they were travelling to Madinah, according to British officials. In 2015, around 2,300 worshippers performing hajj were crushed to death in a stampede, in the worst disaster ever to strike the annual pilgrimage.