One Indian national killed, at least 21 Indians injured.
By Raif Karerat
Follow @ambazaarmag
At least 717 pilgrims were killed on Thursday in a stampede outside the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabian authorities said, the worst disaster to strike the annual Hajj pilgrimage in 25 years.
An Indian woman, 60-year-old LB Nagar of Hyderabad, was among those who perished, while at least 21 other Indians were injured in the tragedy, which took place on the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
At least 863 others were injured in the crush at Mina, a few kilometers east of Mecca, caused by two large groups of pilgrims arriving together at a crossroads on their way to performing the “stoning the devil” ritual at Jamarat, Saudi civil defense said.
Photographs published on the Twitter feed of the Saudi civil defense on Thursday showed pilgrims lying on stretchers while emergency workers in high-visibility jackets lifted them into an ambulance.
Unverified video posted on Twitter showed bodies, clad in the white toweling of those undertaking Hajj, lying on the ground by the side of the road, surrounded by debris, as pilgrims and rescue workers attempted to revive them, reported the Huffington Post.
Thursday’s disaster was the worst to befall the pilgrimage since July 1990, when 1,426 pilgrims were crushed to death in a tunnel near Mecca. Both stampedes occurred on Eid al-Adha, according to Reuters.
In 2006, more than 346 pilgrims were killed in a stampede at the same location as Thursday’s harrowing scene of catastrophe.
Earlier this month, a crane collapsed at Mecca’s Grand Mosque, killing at least 109 people. The collapse was blamed on high winds and the failure of contractor Saudi Binladin Group to meet safety standards, reported the Wall Street Journal.