Source:
Reuters
Reuters
Medical personnel tending to a wounded pilgrim following a crush
caused by large numbers of people pushing at Mina, outside the Muslim
holy city of Mecca. The disaster was the worst to befall the pilgrimage
since July 1990, when 1,426 pilgrims were crushed to death in a tunnel
near Mecca. — Reuters pic
MINA, Sept 24, 2015:
At least 717 pilgrims were killed on
Thursday in a stampede outside the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi
authorities said, the worst disaster to strike the annual haj pilgrimage
in 25 years.
At least 805 others were injured in the
crush at Mina, a few kilometres east ofMecca, 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
defence said.
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
(Feast of the Sacrifice), Islam’s most important feast and the day of
the stoning ritual.
Photographs published on the Twitter feed
of the Saudi civil defence on Thursday showed pilgrims lying on
stretchers while emergency workers in high-visibility jackets lifted
them into an ambulance.
The
haj, the world’s largest annual gathering of people, has been the scene
of numerous deadly stampedes, fires and riots in the past, but their
frequency was greatly reduced in recent years as the government spent
billions of dollars upgrading and expanding haj infrastructure and crowd
control technology.
Safety during haj is a politically
sensitive issue for the kingdom’s ruling Al Saud dynasty, which presents
itself internationally as the guardian of orthodox Islam and custodian
of its holiest places in Mecca and Medina.
Unverified video posted on Twitter showed
bodies, clad in the white towelling of those undertaking haj, lying on
the ground by the side of the road, surrounded by debris, as pilgrims
and rescue workers attempted to revive them.
Street 204, where the stampede occurred,
is one of the two main arteries leading through the camp at Mina to
Jamarat, the site where pilgrims ritually stone the devil by hurling
pebbles at three large pillars. In 2006, at least 346 pilgrims died in a
stampede at Jamarat.
Reuters reporters in another part of Mina
said they could hear police and ambulance sirens, but that roads
leading to the site of the disaster had been blocked.
“Work is underway to separate large
groups of people and direct pilgrims to alternative routes,” the Saudi
Civil Defence said on its Twitter account.
It said more than 220 ambulances and
4,000 rescue workers had been sent to the stampede’s location to help
the injured. Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television channel showed a convoy
of ambulances driving through the Mina camp. Some of the wounded were
evacuated by helicopters.
An Arab pilgrim who did not want to give
his name said he had hoped to perform the stoning ritual later on
Thursday afternoon but was now too frightened to risk doing so.
“I am very tired already and after this I
can’t go. I will wait for the night and if it not resolved, I will see
if maybe somebody else can do it on my behalf,” he said.
Efforts to improve safety at Jamarat have
included enlarging the three pillars and constructing a three-decker
bridge around them to increase the area and number of entry and exit
points for pilgrims to perform the ritual.
More than 100,000 police and thousands of
video cameras are also deployed to allow groups to be dispersed before
they reach dangerous levels of density.
“Please pilgrims do not push one another.
Please leave from the exit and don’t come back by the same route,” an
officer kept repeating through a loudspeaker at Jamarat.
Two weeks ago 110 people died in Mecca’s
Grand Mosque when a crane working on an expansion project collapsed
during a storm and toppled off the roof into the main courtyard,
crushing pilgrims underneath.
source therakyatpost.com
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