At least 310 people have been killed and hundreds more injured in a crush at Mina, outside the Saudi holy city of Mecca, where 2 million people are performing the annual hajj pilgrimage.
At least 450 others were injured in the stampede, which took place on Street 204 of the camp city at Mina, where pilgrims stay for several days during the climax of the hajj. The pilgrimage, the world’s largest annual gathering of people, has been the scene of deadly disasters in the past, including stampedes, tent fires and riots. Safety during the pilgrimage is a politically sensitive issue for the kingdom’s ruling dynasty, which presents itself internationally as the guardians of orthodox Islam and custodians of its holiest places in Mecca and Medina.
The government has spent billions of dollars upgrading and expanding hajj infrastructure and crowd control technology in recent years. The last big deadly incident took place in 2006 when at least 346 pilgrims died in a stampede.
Street 204 is one of the two main arteries leading through the camp at Mina to Jamarat, where pilgrims ritually stone the devil by hurling pebbles at three large pillars. Jamarat was also the site of the 2006 disaster.
Photos released by the Saudi civil defence on its official Twitter account showed rescue workers in orange and yellow vests helping the wounded on to stretchers and into ambulances.
The civil defence said more than 220 ambulances and 4,000 rescue workers had been sent to the scene to help the wounded, and that work was under way to separate large groups of people and direct pilgrims to alternative routes.
The Saudi-owned pan-Arab TV station Al-Arabiya showed a convoy of ambulances driving through the Mina camp.
Efforts to improve safety at Jamarat have included enlarging the three pillars and constructing a triple-decker bridge around them to increase the area and number of entry and exit points for pilgrims to perform the ritual.
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.
Thursday is also the first day of the Eid al-Adha festival, when Muslims slaughter a sheep. It has traditionally been the most dangerous day of hajj because vast numbers of pilgrims attempt to perform rituals at the same time in a single location.
It is a religious duty for able-bodied Muslims to complete the hajj – one of the five pillars of Islam – at least once. The rituals involved in the pilgrimage are intended to cleanse the soul and promote the bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood within Islam.
Pilgrims this year have been undeterred by the collapse of a construction crane in Mecca earlier this month, which killed more than 100 people and injured at least 200. An investigation has been launched into the cause of the collapse amid claims the proper safeguards are ignored in the race to complete developments surrounding the Grand Mosque. Among the projects under construction is a 10,000-bed hotel.
Last week, more than 1,000 pilgrims were evacuated from a hotel in Mecca in the early hours of the morning after a fire broke out.
Source: TheGuardian
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