Hundreds die in stampede at Mecca
AT least 717 pilgrims from around the world were killed yesterday in a crush outside the Muslim holy city of Mecca, in the worst disaster to strike the annual hajj pilgrimage for 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 suffocated in a tunnel near Mecca.
Both incidents occurred on Eid-ul-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice), Islam’s most important feast and the day of the stoning ritual.
Acting President Cyril Ramaphosa extended condolences to the families of the victims and said the government was awaiting information about South Africa’s pilgrims.
“For South Africans‚ the stam- pede was particularly tragic given [that it happened on] Heritage Day‚ an occasion dedicated to celebrating the diversity of the nation,” he said.
Photographs published on the Twitter feed of the Saudi civil defence showed pilgrims lying on stretchers.
Other images showed the bodies of men in white hajj garments piled on top of each other. Some bore visible injuries.
The hajj, the world’s largest annual gathering of people, has been the scene of numerous deadly stampedes, fires and riots in the past, but their frequency has been greatly reduced in recent years as the government spent billions of dollars upgrading and expanding hajj infrastructure and crowd control technology.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef bin Abdelaziz has ordered that a committee be formed to investigate the disaster and present its findings to King Salman.
An Interior Ministry spokes- man said the investigation would look into what had caused an unusual density of pilgrims to congregate at the location of the disaster.