Haj Stampede Near Mecca Leaves Over 700 Dead

Beirut: At least 717 people were killed and 863 injured in a stampede near Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on Thursday.

The deaths - at an intersection in Mina, about six miles east of the city - occurred around 9 a.m. on the first day of Eid al-Adha, one of the holiest days in the Muslim calendar, as millions of Muslims were making their pilgrimage, or hajj, to Mecca.

It appeared to be the deadliest accident during the hajj since 1990, when 1,426 pilgrims perished in a stampede in a tunnel linking Mecca and Mina. 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.

Thursday's stampede is likely to intensify fears that Saudi Arabia does not have the transportation and public safety infrastructure to channel and protect one of the world's largest regular human migrations.

In a statement, the Saudi health minister, Khalid al-Falih, said the stampede may have been "caused by the movement of some pilgrims who didn't follow the guidelines and instructions issued by the responsible authorities."

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But the high death toll is likely to embarrass the Saudi government, which considers itself the leader of the Muslim world and takes great pride in hosting the millions of pilgrims who visit the holy cities of Mecca and Medina each year.

The Saudi civil defense directorate reported the deaths on Twitter and said that two medical centers had been opened in Mina to treat the injured. More than 4,000 emergency workers were sent to the scene, and hundreds of people were taken to four hospitals.

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The stampede, witnesses reported on social media, occurred around the area where pilgrims go to perform a ritual - the Stoning of the Devil, a re-enactment of a story from the Quran involving the Prophet Abraham - that takes place during the hajj.

In Iran, officials already angered by the crane collapse complained bitterly about the Saudi government's role in the disaster, which claimed the lives of at least 89 Iranians.

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"Unfortunately, they have not been attending to our injured individuals in their hospitals the way they should," Qazi Askar, the representative of Iran's supreme leader for hajj affairs, said in an emotional interview with state television on Thursday. "The point which makes one wonder is that they do not even let our rescue relief teams visit the site and attend to them, or go to hospitals to identify our injured ones. I don't know what kind of service this is for pilgrims."