Stampede death toll reaches 363
Saudi officials today raised the death toll in a stampede by Muslim pilgrims to 363, and the Saudi Interior Ministry defended its response, saying security forces were alerted to the problem immediately.
The crush of 600,000 pilgrims during the annual hajj took place yesterday at the main eastern ramp leading up to al-Jamarat, a giant platform where three pillars representing the devil are located.
Pilgrims pelt the pillars with stones in a symbolic purging of their sins.
The pilgrims were squeezed in at the entrance to a holy site – four people per square yard – when about a dozen stumbled on baggage, tripping others behind them, the Interior Ministry said.
“Security forces were alerted to the incident immediately once it was seen through observation cameras, and moved in within two minutes,” Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki told a news conference.
He said that 363 died, and of that total, 203 have been identified – 118 men and 85 women. Some 289 people were injured, but al-Turki said all but 45 have been released from the hospital.
Al-Turki said the baggage carried by the pilgrims as contributing to the tragedy.
“We try to get rid of the baggage … but not every group of pilgrims complies. So we see a lot of umbrellas and belongings. This leads to a great deal of stumbling among the pilgrims. There are people carrying plastic bags, water bottles. That can lead to people stumbling,” al-Turki said.
Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdel-Aziz said police prevented the death toll from being even higher. “Those who know the facts know the security forces prevented many things that could have taken more lives,” he said.
“The number of pilgrims is only going to increase in the coming years, so there must be solutions so that this sort of incident is not repeated,” he said, adding that a commission would study the accident and make recommendations for changes.
Since yesterday’s deaths, some pilgrims have complained that the some 60,000 security forces deployed at the site were not working enough to direct crowds and ensure pilgrims are obeying regulations.
The crush took place at the main eastern ramp leading up to al-Jamarat, a giant platform where three pillars representing the devil are located. Pilgrims pelt the pillars with stones in a symbolic purging of their sins. The crowd was massed at the bottom of the ramp, moving up toward the pillars.
“The baggage is a contributing factor. … Some pilgrims drop their belonging because they’re a burden. And no one notices it until they trip over it,” al-Turki said.
“We try to get rid of the baggage … But not every group of pilgrims complies. So we see a lot of umbrellas and belongings. There are people carrying plastic bags, water bottles. That can lead to people stumbling,” he said.
He said the crowds are swollen because of pilgrims who illegally join the ritual. The number of registered pilgrims is about 2.3 million, but some estimates put the real number at more than 3 million, including unregistered ones, he said.
Saudi Arabia allows each Islamic nation to send 1,000 pilgrims per 1 million in population. Saudis and foreign residents in the kingdom must register to get a permit to participate. But al-Turki said many Saudis and foreign residents participate without permission.
In Mina, the desert plain outside Mecca where al-Jamarat is located, hundreds of worried pilgrims crowded around photos of unidentified dead posted at a medical centre on Friday, scanning anxiously for pictures of loved ones.
Egyptian Osama el-Gindy said he was looking for a relative who was a few meters ahead of him when the stampede began.
“I was slightly wounded but managed to pull myself out of the crowd. I haven’t seen him since then,” el-Gindy said. ”I hope he is still alive. But if he is dead, he is a martyr and will go to heaven like all others.”
Muslims believe that anyone who dies during a pilgrimage is assured a place in heaven.
The tragedy underlined the difficulty in managing one of the biggest religious events in the world.
The week-long pilgrimage, required once in a lifetime of every able-bodied Muslim, ends today.
The al-Jamarat site has seen deadly incidents in seven of the past 17 years, including a stampede in 1990 that killed 1,426 people and another in February 2004 that killed 244.
The deaths follow another accident that marred this year’s hajj – the Jan. 5 collapse of a building being used as a pilgrims’ hotel that killed 76 people in Mecca.
Ensuring a smooth pilgrimage is a key concern for Saudi Arabia’s royal family, which bolsters its legitimacy by touting its role as the “custodian of the holy cities” – Mecca and Medina, where Islam’s 7th century prophet Muhammad was born and lived.
Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdel Aziz said Thursday that the state had “spared no effort” to avoid such disasters but, he added, “it cannot stop what God has preordained. It is impossible.”
“We feel pain and sorrow for them and for their families and we send our condolences,” the prince said on Al-Ekhbariya television.
Saudi Arabia has made efforts to ease the massive flow of pilgrims since the 2004 stampede, widening ramps leading to the platform where the three pillars are located and creating more emergency exits.
The small, round pillars were replaced with 26-metre-long walls to allow more people to stone them at once without jostling each other. The walls extend down through the bridge and protrude underneath, so pilgrims below can also carry out the stoning without going above.
Saudi Arabia has announced plans for further changes to the site in coming years that it says would allow some 500,000 pilgrims an hour to carry out the stoning.
Among the changes, the platform is to be expanded to four levels, with 12 entrances and 12 exits.
Also, there are plans to bus pilgrims to al-Jamarat from a nearby tent city in the desert rather than allowing them to make their own way to the site.
