100+ dead, 1 000 hurt in haj stampede

2006-01-12 17:00

Mecca - Thousands of Muslim pilgrims rushing to complete a symbolic stoning ritual on the last day of the haj tripped over luggage on Thursday, causing a crush.

Medical officials said more than 110 people were killed and about 1 000 injured.

The stampede occurred as tens of thousands of pilgrims headed toward al-Jamarat, a series of three pillars representing the devil that the faithful pelt with stones to purge themselves of sin.

A member of an emergency team at the scene said at least 110 people were killed and that the number was likely to rise.

More than 1 000 were injured, a doctor with the Saudi Red Crescent said.

He told The Associated Press he'd heard reports that up to 300 people may have been killed.

Footage from the scene showed lines of dead laid out on stretchers on the pavement and covered with sheets.

Ahmed Mustafa, an Egyptian pilgrim, said he saw bodies taken away in refrigerator trucks.

"There must be dozens of people dead," he said.

"I heard screaming and I looked around and saw people jumping over each other. Police came and cordoned off the area.

"They starting pulling out bodies. The bodies were piled up. I couldn't count them, they were too many," said Suad Abu Hamada, an Egyptian pilgrim.

The site is a notorious bottleneck for the massive crowds that attend the haj pilgrimage and has seen deadly stampedes in the past, including one in 1990 that killed 1 426 people and another in February 2004 that killed 244.

This year's haj was already marred by the January 5 collapse of a building being used as a pilgrims' hotel that killed 76 people in Mecca.

A ministry spokesperson, Mansour al-Turki, said the stampede happened as pilgrims were rushing to complete the last of three days of the stoning ritual before sunset.

Some of the pilgrims began to trip over dropped luggage, causing a large pile-up, al-Turki said.

Many pilgrims carry their personal affects with them as they move between the various stages of the haj.

The pillars are located on a large pedestrian bridge, the width of an eight-lane highway over the desert plain of Mina outside the holy city of Mecca.

A number of ramps lead up the bridge to give pilgrims access to the site, and the stampede occurred at the base of one ramp.

Al-Turki said there were deaths, but he could not give an exact number.

State-run Saudi television Al-Ekhbariyah cited police officials as saying dozens were killed and injured, most of them from South Asia.

Mina General Hospital, a small facility several hundred metres from the site, was filled with injured.

Ambulances and police cars streamed into the area, and security forces tried to move pilgrims away from part of the site, though thousands continued with the ritual.

The stampede took place despite Saudi efforts to improve traffic at the site, where all 2.5 million pilgrims participating in the annual haj move from pillar to pillar to throw their stones, then exit.

Saudi authorities replaced the small round pillars with short walls to allow more people to throw their stones at them at one time without jostling for position.

They also recently widened the bridge, built extra ramps and increased the time pilgrims can carry out the rite - which on the second and final days traditionally takes place from mid-day until sunset.

Shiite Muslim clerics have issued religious edicts allowing pilgrims to start the ritual in the morning, and many Shiites from Iraq, Iran, Bahrain, Lebanon and Pakistan took advantage to go early in the day.

"This is much better. We are now done with the stoning before the crowd gets larger," Azghar Meshadi, an Iranian pilgrim, said hours before the stampede.

But Saudi Arabia's Sunni Muslim clerics, who follow the fundamentalist Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, encouraged pilgrims to stick to the mid-day rule.

The stoning ritual is one of the last events of the haj pilgrimage to Islam's holiest sites, which able-bodied Muslims with the financial means are required by their faith to do at least once.

Many pilgrims had already finished the stoning ritual on Thursday and had gone back to Mecca to carry out a farewell circuit around the Kaaba, the black stone cube that Muslims face when they do their daily prayers.

- AP