It has traditionally been the most unsafe day of hajj because vast numbers of pilgrims attempt to perform rituals at the same time in a single location. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, an Interior Ministry spokesman.
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Professor Fawaz Gerges, chairman of Contemporary Middle East Studies at the London School of Economics, says the stampedes there are caused by pilgrims “pushing and shoving to ‘stone the devil, ‘ throwing stones in a very narrow area”.
Saudi authorities say 717 people were killed in crush of Muslim pilgrims near holy city of Mecca.
About two million Muslims are taking part in this year’s Haj pilgrimage, which began on Tuesday.
Civil defense authorities said the latest death toll is 453, but the numbers have been climbing steadily.
Head of the PPIH for Mecca Desk (Daker), Arsyad Hidayat, said the incident took place along Arab Road 204 which is not the lane usually taken by the Indonesian hajjis going to perform the Jamarah hurling ritual.
Thursday’s tragedy struck during a morning surge of pilgrims at the intersection of streets 204 and 223 as the faithful were making their way toward a large structure overlooking the columns, according to the civil defense directorate.
Roughly two million Muslims take part in the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia every year.
Amateur video on social media showed scores of bodies – many still dressed in the simple terry cloth garments worn during hajj – lying amid crushed wheelchairs and water bottles on a sunbaked street.
The crush happened in Mina, a large valley about five kilometers (three miles) from Mecca that has been the site of past hajj stampedes.
At least 131 Iranians died, according to the official IRNA news agency, and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said Saudi Arabia “is obliged to admit its responsibility”.
Sudanese pilgrim Mahmoun Mahmoud, 55, witnessed what he said appeared to be pilgrims from many different countries.
Losing one’s life during the Hajj season is considered by many devout Muslims as an entry to heaven.
The BBC has described it as the riskiest ritual of the Hajj because of the way worshipers jostle, which can knock weaker pilgrims over.
The stampede happened in Mina, on the outskirts of the holy city of Mecca.
The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was “deeply saddened” to hear of the deaths, his spokesman said in a statement. It is thought she died from a heart attack.
In 2006, a particularly lethal stampede there killed at least 363 people. “Before leaving for the hajj, he told me he had a wish to be buried in Mecca”, she said.
On September 11, just days before this year’s Hajj started, a construction crane crashed through the roof of another eminent Hajj destination, the Grand Mosque in Mecca, killing 107 people.
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He added: “People must have fainted because it was very hot and humid down there… and also there have been many cases of dehydration since yesterday”.
