In 2006, a particularly lethal stampede there killed at least 363 people. “You go forward and suddenly you go back”.
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Performing the Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, and every Muslim who is physically and financially able is required to make the journey to the holy city of Mecca near Saudi Arabia’s west coast at least once in their lives.
He added that more needs to be done to protect those who do make the Hajj pilgrimage.
Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry says the crush of Muslim pilgrims that killed more than 700 people outside Mecca appears to have been caused by two waves of pilgrims meeting at an intersection.
The crush happened in Mina, a large valley about three miles from the holy city of Mecca that has been the site of hajj stampedes in years past.
“Unfortunately, these incidents happen in a moment”, al-Turki said at a news conference. “What happened was more than they were ready for”, he said of the Saudi authorities.
At least 863 pilgrims were injured in the crush, said the Saudi civil defense directorate, which provided the death toll. At least another 800 were injured.
Also known as the feast of sacrifice, Eid al-Adha is one of Islam’s most important religious days.
Sudanese pilgrim Mohammed Awad, 36, and his 56-year-old father were separated when people began pushing and shoving.
He said there was considerable congestion on phone lines in the hours after the tragedy, making it hard to get in touch with loved ones in the area. “They were stacked high”, Awad said.
Amateur video shared on social media showed a horrific scene, with scores of bodies – the men dressed in the simple terry cloth garments worn during hajj – lying amid crushed wheelchairs and water bottles along a sunbaked street.
Helicopters circled Mina throughout the day, ferrying the injured to hospitals, while military police blocked the streets where the deaths took place.
Figures released Thursday by the official Saudi Press Agency said 1,952,817 pilgrims had performed this year’s hajj, including nearly 1.4 million foreigners.
“Today’s events show mismanagement and lack of serious attention to the safety of pilgrims”, said Ohadi.
The Iranian government has placed blame on Saudi officials. A group of pilgrims leaving the area collided with another group that was either moving in the opposite direction or camped outside, the official said. And it occurred less than two weeks after a large construction crane toppled and crashed into the Grand Mosque in Mecca, killing at least 111 people and injuring 394 others.
“The reputation of the kingdom is on the line”, said Fawaz Gerges, a Middle East expert at the London School of Economics. According to the findings of the Liebherr crane experts sent to Saudi Arabia, the LR 11350 was erected at the time of the accident with a boom length of approximately 190 metres, parked outside of the Grand Mosque and put out of operation. “Each part of the hajj affects the other”.
The mood in Mina was somber, however, and many were stunned by the tragedy instead of jubilant at completing the pilgrimage.
“It was bad, it was really, really awful”, he said.
The names of the first 43 Iranians killed in the stampede were earlier read out in a sombre live broadcast in Tehran by a spokesman for the hajj organization. Another stampede at Mina in 2004 killed 244 and left hundreds injured.
The stampede, the second deadly accident to hit the pilgrims this month following a crane collapse in Mecca, broke out during the symbolic stoning of the devil ritual, the Saudi civil defence service said.
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Thousands of Muslims attended this year’s Eid al-Adha celebrations in venues across Saskatchewan.
