717 People Killed, 863 Injured in Hajj: KSA Blames Pilgrims!
Local Editor
A stampede during the Hajj outside of the holy Muslim city of Mecca has claimed about 717 lives and left 863 pilgrims injured, Saudi Arabia's Civil Defense Service reported.
The crush happened in Mecca's neighborhood of Mina, which traditionally provides temporary accommodation for hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. The ritual of the ‘Stoning of the Devil' is performed in a valley surrounding the neighborhood on the night before last day of the Hajj.
The stampede happened in a street separating two pilgrim camps.
The street is named Street 204. It is one of the two main arteries in Mina leading through the camp at Mina to Jamarat Bridge, where the Stoning of the Devil ritual is performed.
The incident happened near an exit from a monorail train station near the tent camps. The camp sector houses pilgrims from Gulf nations, who apparently are the majority among the victims.
Following the incident, Saudi King Salman ordered an investigation and demanded a review of the kingdom's plans for the annual Hajj pilgrimage. The comments were made during a speech broadcast by Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television.
Meanwhile, a video seems to have been recorded by an unidentified Arabic-speaking individual from a vantage point above the two large masses of pilgrims, which are seen in the footage facing each other and waiting before a number of security forces and other personnel open a gate, channeling the hundreds of pilgrims into another area.
As the gate opens, the Saudi security forces are seen forming a chain that limits even further the space for the pilgrims, who flood through the gate in panic with increasing speed, apparently triggering the crush.
People are then heard screaming as the massive flow of pilgrims through the gate continues, with the Saudi security forces on the ground only standing to direct the crowd to a single direction rather than allowing them to disperse more freely.
It is not clear why the two large masses of pilgrims were made to meet face-to-face at the entry point from opposite directions in the first place.
Arabic-language daily al-Diyar has said the presence of the convoy of Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud, the son of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, in the middle of the population prompted a change in the direction of the movement of the pilgrims and the subsequent crush. It said Salman had sought to attend the huge gathering of pilgrims in Mina.
This is while Saudi Arabia's health minister has blamed the pilgrims for the deadly incident, saying the tragedy would not have happened if they "had followed instructions."
Just two weeks ago over a hundred people were killed in Mecca when a construction crane fell on the crowded Grand Mosque. The worshipers had gathered in the city ahead of this year's Hajj.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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