Stampede breaks out among pilgrims at hajj

MECCA – Muslim pilgrims rushing to complete a symbolic stoning ritual on the last day of the hajj tripped over luggage yesterday, causing a crush in which state-run television said dozens of people were killed and 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. “I saw people moving and suddenly I heard crying, shouting, wailing.0″I looked around and people were piling on each other.They started pulling dead people from the crowd,” said Abdullah Pulig, an Indian street cleaner who was working nearby.Ahmed Mustafa, an Egyptian pilgrim, said he saw bodies taken away in refrigerator trucks.”There must be dozens of people dead,” he said.The site is a notorious bottleneck for the massive crowds that attend the hajj 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 hajj 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 spokesman, Maj.Gen.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 pieces of luggage spilled from moving buses at one entrance to al-Jamarat, causing pilgrims to trip and pile up, al-Turki said.A police officer at the scene said the pilgrims were carrying the luggage and dropped it, rather than falling from buses.The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press.Many pilgrims carry their personal affects with them as they move between the various stages of the hajj.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.Mina General Hospital, a small facility several hundred metres from the site, was filled with injured, and some victims were sent to hospitals in Mecca and Riyadh, said Ismail Abdul-Zaher, a doctor at the hospital.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 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.The stampede took place despite Saudi efforts to improve traffic at the site, where all 2.5 million pilgrims participating in the annual hajj 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 pligrim, said hours before the stampede.But Saudi Arabia’s Sunni Muslim clerics, who follow the fundamentalist Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, encouraged pligrims to stick to the mid-day rule.The stoning ritual is one of the last events of the hajj 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 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.-Nampa-AFP”I saw people moving and suddenly I heard crying, shouting, wailing.0″I looked around and people were piling on each other.They started pulling dead people from the crowd,” said Abdullah Pulig, an Indian street cleaner who was working nearby.Ahmed Mustafa, an Egyptian pilgrim, said he saw bodies taken away in refrigerator trucks.”There must be dozens of people dead,” he said.The site is a notorious bottleneck for the massive crowds that attend the hajj 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 hajj 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 spokesman, Maj.Gen.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 pieces of luggage spilled from moving buses at one entrance to al-Jamarat, causing pilgrims to trip and pile up, al-Turki said.A police officer at the scene said the pilgrims were carrying the luggage and dropped it, rather than falling from buses.The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press.Many pilgrims carry their personal affects with them as they move between the various stages of the hajj.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.Mina General Hospital, a small facility several hundred metres from the site, was filled with injured, and some victims were sent to hospitals in Mecca and Riyadh, said Ismail Abdul-Zaher, a doctor at the hospital.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 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.The stampede took place despite Saudi efforts to improve traffic at the site, where all 2.5 million pilgrims participating in the annual hajj 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 pligrim, said hours before the stampede.But Saudi Arabia’s Sunni Muslim clerics, who follow the fundamentalist Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, encouraged pligrims to stick to the mid-day rule.The stoning ritual is one of the last events of the hajj 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 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.-Nampa-AFP