Hundreds killed in hajj stampede in Mecca

作者: The AsiaN Editor on 25 September , 2015.
类别: Middle East, News, People, Society
Bodies of people who died in a crush in Mina, Saudi Arabia during the annual hajj pilgrimage. The crush happened in Mina, a large valley about five kilometers (three miles) from the holy city of Mecca that has been the site of hajj stampedes in years past. (AP Photo)

Bodies of people who died in a crush in Mina, Saudi Arabia during the annual hajj pilgrimage. The crush happened in Mina, a large valley about five kilometers (three miles) from the holy city of Mecca that has been the site of hajj stampedes in years past. (AP Photo)

A stampede during one of the last rituals of the Hajj season — the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca — has killed more than 700 people and injured close to 900 others in Saudi Arabia.

The stampede occurred Thursday morning during the ritual known as “stoning the devil” in a tent city in the neighborhood of Mina, about two miles from Mecca.

Hundreds have been killed in past years during the same ceremony, and it comes only 13 days after a crane collapse killed more than 100 people at another major Islamic holy site, the Grand Mosque in Mecca. But this incident is the deadliest disaster at Mina since 1990, when 1,426 people died.

Civil defense authorities said the latest death toll is 717, with 863 people injured, but the numbers have been climbing steadily. Officials deployed 4,000 workers, along with 220 ambulances and other vehicles, to Mina in response to the disaster.

In the ritual, crowds of pilgrims throw stones at three pillars in a re-enactment of when the Prophet Abraham stoned the devil and rejected his temptations, according to Muslim traditions.

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud later ordered a review of the country’s plans during Hajj.

“Regardless of the investigation results, the improvement of the methods and mechanisms of the Hajj season will not stop. We have instructed the concerned entities to re-evaluate the current policy and the distribution of responsibilities,” he said.

In Thursday’s stampede, pilgrims were walking toward the largest of the pillars when there was a sudden surge in the crowd about 9 a.m., causing a large number of people to fall, the Saudi Press Agency said, citing civil defense officials. Though information on what led to the surge wasn’t immediately available, but the Saudi health minister, Khaled al-Falih, said the crush occurred because many pilgrims moved “without respecting the timetables” established by authorities.

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