Postby Beenlow » Thu Jan 12, 2006 7:11 pm
MENA, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - At least 345 Muslim pilgrims were crushed to death on Thursday during a stoning ritual on the last day of the haj, the worst tragedy to beset the sacred event in more than a decade.
Saudi officials said the pilgrims were crushed at the eastern entrance of Mena's disaster-prone Jamarat Bridge as they jostled to perform the stoning between noon and sunset in Mena, a narrow valley near the holy city of Mecca.
"So far, the number of confirmed deaths is 345 and the number of injured in hospital is 289," Health Minister Hamad al-Manei told Saudi state television, adding that many had been discharged.
Some 2.5 million Muslims are performing the haj this year, and the death toll was the worst since 1,426 people were killed in a stampede in a tunnel in Mecca in 1990.
"It was like the road of death there," one pilgrim said, describing women fainting and people elbowing and pushing to get closer to the wall where pilgrims direct their stones.
Thursday's crush, which occurred after noon prayers, intensified after many pilgrims scrambled to pick up belongings lost in the heavy crowds, the Interior Ministry said. "Pilgrims fell over and crushed each other at the eastern entrance to the Jamarat," it said in a statement.
Many pilgrims insist on following Prophet Mohammad's example of stoning after noon prayers instead of staggering the ritual throughout the day as some clerics recommend.
Bodies covered in white shrouds littered the Jamarat area, as medics tended to the injured on stretchers. The bodies were driven away in ambulances and refrigerated trucks.
"The people who died were trying to get onto the bridge to do their stoning. But a wave of people came from the (other) direction trying to get off the bridge. That's when people died," said Egyptian Amr Gad.
"ACT OF GOD"
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Sultan blamed the crush on pilgrims who insisted on carrying bulky baggage during the stoning ritual despite officials' warnings.
But he defended the kingdom's organization of the haj, saying: "The state can't stop God's will, its impossible to think that any human can stop God's will."
The crush was the second disaster to hit this year's pilgrimage. Last week, 76 people were killed when a hostel in Mecca collapsed in a narrow street.
Saudi security forces set up a tight cordon around the Jamarat Bridge to control the crowds, as many pilgrims thronged to carry on stoning three walls in a symbolic casting out of the devil and rejection of temptation.
The haj is a duty for every able-bodied Muslim at least once in a lifetime. Many pilgrims transport their belongings from site to site, hampering the flow of pilgrims.
"There was crowding and pushing, of course. It's so sad to hear about the people who died," said Fawaz Zahrani, a Saudi.
The pilgrimage has been marred by stampedes in the past, and some of the worst have occurred in Mena. In 2004, some 250 pilgrims were crushed to death at Jamarat Bridge. A decade earlier, 270 were killed in a similar stampede.
Saudi Arabia has revamped the Jamarat area by expanding the stoning targets and provided unprecedented security including 60,000 security men to control the huge crowd and avert possible attacks by Islamist militants.
After this year's haj, the Jamarat Bridge will be replaced with a more elaborate bridge involving a four-level system of entrances and exits to the three walls, including a subway, and costing 4.2 billion riyals ($1.12 billion).
Pilgrims, in white robes meant to eradicate differences in race and class between Muslims, perform a third day of stoning on Thursday and make a final visit to the Grand Mosque in Mecca, according to rules laid out by Prophet Mohammad 1,400 years ago.
