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Hundreds Killed in Hajj Stampede
MINA,
Saudi Arabia, January 12, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies)
– An unknown number of pilgrims were killed and injured Thursday,
January 12, at a stampede during the second day of the stoning ritual
of hajj, news agencies said, citing medical sources.
"The
number of killed is at least 200," a medical source at Mina
General Hospital told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"The
figure is due to rise because most of the victims are in critical
condition," he said.
"We
cannot give an exact figure because we received some 600 casualties,
many of whom were transferred to other hospitals," he added.
Reuters
said more than 100 pilgrims were crushed to death and almost a
thousand others were wounded, with some witnesses claiming 200 hundred
casualties.
"It
is more than 100," a medic in Mina outside the holy city of
Makkah told Reuters.
"We
have a number of casualties and injuries. The (exact) number is not
known yet," Adel Zamzami, head of civil defense forces in western
Saudi Arabia, had earlier said.
"There
is an accident at the beginning of the bridge of Jamarat," where
the pilgrims stone three pillars symbolizing the devil in the valley
of Mina, east of the holy city of Makkah.
Tarek
Al-Arnus, the head of emergency operations at the ministry of health
who was at the scene at the time of the accident, told AFP: "It
is too early to give a toll."
"Ambulances
and emergency crews are on the scene, trying to deal with it," he
said.
Luggage
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Saudi security and army officers cordon the site. (Reuters).
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A
ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, told The Associated
Press (AP) the stampede happened after some pieces of luggage dropped
from moving buses. The pilgrims apparently tripped over them as they
were rushing to the pillars.
Al-Turki
said there were deaths, but he could not give an exact number.
The
Saudi Interior Ministry said earlier in a statement that an unknown
number of people had been killed in the stampede at the eastern
entrance of Mina's Jamarat Bridge after pilgrims jostled to perform
the stoning ritual between noon and sunset.
One
witness said some bodies had already been taken away in trucks
earlier.
Ambulances
were still arriving on the scene, but pilgrims were still moving up
onto the bridge to carry out the stoning ritual before evening
prayers.
Witnesses
told Al-Jazeera TV, banned by Saudi authorities from live coverage of
hajj, that most of those who lost their lives and most wounded
belonged to Asian countries.
Earlier
Thursday, Reuters journalists counted at least 50 bodies lined up on
the ground and covered in white shrouds. Some were being placed on
lorries by medics.
More
than two million pilgrims were performing the final rites of this
year's hajj Thursday.
Deadly
stampedes have marred the five-day pilgrimage in previous years. Some
250 pilgrims were crushed to death in 2004 at Jamarat Bridge, on which
the millions of pilgrims must stand while they hurl stones at three
thick walls in a symbolic casting out of the devil and rejection of
temptation.
Saudi
Arabia has revamped the Jamarat area, expanding the stoning targets
and provided an unprecedented security blanket including 60,000
security men to control the huge crowd and avert possible attacks by
Islamist militants.
After
this year's hajj, 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).
This
year's hajj had already been overshadowed by the collapse of a Makkah
hostel that killed 76 people ahead of the pilgrimage and warnings the
huge crowds could lead to a possible spread of the deadly bird flu.
In
fulfillment of one of the traditions of Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon
him), each pilgrim pelted seven pebbles at the Jamarat Al-Aqabah (the
biggest of three pillars) Tuesday and the ritual was to continue for
another two days.
The
pilgrims were to stone
all the three Jamarats Wednesday and Thursday, and most of the
pilgrims are expected to leave Mina before sundown Thursday, the last
of the five-day hajj.
Those
who are unable to leave Mina on the 12th Dhul Hijjah before sundown
are required to stay another day in Mina and stone all the Jamarats on
the 13th Dhul Hijjah.
The
stoning ritual became in recent years more hectic for the pilgrims as
well as for each and every person involved into the management of the
whole affair.
Thousands
of Saudi policemen and security force members were at hand to prevent
a repeat of stampedes
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