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Hundreds killed in Hajj stampede

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  • Hundreds killed in Hajj stampede

    At least 345 Muslim pilgrims have died in a crush during the stone-throwing ritual at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, officials say.

    Hundreds of pilgrims have also been injured. A BBC correspondent at the scene in Mina saw dozens of bodies lined up on the ground.

    The ritual has seen many lethal stampedes but the number of dead this time is the highest in 16 years.

    After a crush in 2004, barriers and stewards were added to improve safety.

    Bridge surge

    The stampede took place at the foot of the bridge of Jamarat, where pilgrims hurl stones at three pillars representing the spot where the devil is said to have appeared to Abraham.

    Map of stampede area in Mina

    An interior ministry spokesman, Maj Gen Mansour al-Turki, told the Associated Press news agency the crush happened after pieces of luggage spilled from moving buses in front of one of the entrances to the bridge, causing pilgrims to trip.

    At least 289 people were injured, according to the Saudi Health Minister Hamad bin Abdullah al-Maneh.

    With the local hospital in Mina overflowing, many victims of the crush were transported to medical facilities in Mecca and Riyadh, a doctor told the Associated Press news agency.

    Many of the victims were reportedly from south and south-east Asia.

    More than two million people were thought to have been performing the rite at the time.

    'Road of death'

    Witness Abdullah Pulig, an Indian street-cleaner, described a scene of carnage.

    'Road of death'

    "I saw people moving and suddenly I heard crying, shouting, wailing. I looked around and people were piling on each other. They started pulling dead people from the crowd," he told the Associated Press news agency.

    Suad Abu Hamada, an Egyptian pilgrim, told the agency he heard screaming and "saw people jumping over each other".

    "It was like the road of death in there," said another pilgrim, quoted by Reuters news agency, who spoke of women fainting amid elbowing crowds.

    Ambulances and police cars streamed into the area, as security forces tried to move people away from the scene of the accident.

    The pilgrims were returning via Mina after performing the Tawaf al-Wada, a farewell ceremony that involves walking around the Kaaba - a cube-like building in the centre of Mecca's Great Mosque - seven times.


    HAJJ DISASTERS
    1987: 400 die as Saudi authorities confront pro-Iranian demonstration
    1990: 1,426 pilgrims killed in tunnel leading to holy sites
    1994: 270 killed in stampede
    1997: 343 pilgrims die and 1,500 injured in fire
    1998: At least 118 trampled to death
    2001: 35 die in stampede
    2003: 14 are crushed to death
    2004: 251 trampled to death in stampede

    Deadly history of the Hajj

    The Tawaf al-Wada is performed after the Hajj has finished.

    The stoning is the riskiest ritual of the Hajj, as worshippers jostle to try to target the stones, often causing weaker pilgrims to fall under foot.

    In 2004, more than 200 pilgrims were trampled to death while performing the same ceremony.

    The latest deadly stampede comes days after more than 70 people died when a hostel for pilgrims collapsed in the Saudi city of Mecca.

    The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam and every able-bodied adult Muslim is obliged to perform it at least once in their lives.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4606002.stm
    -------------------------------------------------------------
    Weird, every year they change the rules for stone throwing and increase more safety precautions, but people invariably die during hajj.
    A grain of wheat eclipsed the sun of Adam !!

  • #2
    Originally posted by Jay
    Weird, every year they change the rules for stone throwing and increase more safety precautions, but people invariably die during hajj.
    Yeah...this is starting to become a pattern here....
    Maybe just not do this particular part of the haji? I mean, is that important to do, even if you're going to lose a couple hundred people every year?
    “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

    Comment


    • #3
      The religious fervour makes the devout forget their social obligations. Unfortuante but true.

      The dovout carry their belongings from place to place and when that is dropped they try to pick it up and in the thronging multitude and push, they get trampled. Once that happens and there is also human traffic from the other side, there is a huge crush and sort of a domino effect takes place.

      The other problem is that while one is advised to stone the devil any time between sunrise and sunset, the devout prefers to do it after the afternoon prayers since that is what Mohamed did or so I learn. This creates a huge human traffic regulation problem and since the devout forget their social obligation totally in a religious "trance", this type of an event occurs.



      "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

      I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

      HAKUNA MATATA

      Comment


      • #4
        Not to dismiss the tragedy, but I can't help but see the word "stampede" and wonder why they don't just hire some good ol' American cowboys to herd the crowd.
        The black flag is raised: Ban them all... Let the Admin sort them out.

        I know I'm going to have the last word... I have powers of deletion and lock.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by TopHatter
          Maybe just not do this particular part of the haji? I mean, is that important to do, even if you're going to lose a couple hundred people every year?
          This part is not compulsory, but important to sunnis as they follow Mohammeds path.
          The tradition's been kept alive for over 1400 years..

          Comment


          • #6
            How does this happen year after year ? Are enough measures being taken by the Kingdom to prevent them?

            An annual loss of life in such a holy place, year after year, pilgrims dying in such large numbers. Unfortunate.

            I think 27 of those dead are Indians. Sad.

            Comment


            • #7
              Honestly they should learn crowd management from countries like India. We have multiple festivals that run for a week, where millions of people gather down in a river/city/temple. Most of the time its casualty free, ofcourse some times it is catastrophic, but atleast we learn from our mistakes.

              Im not complaining that the kingdom is not doing enuff, but they can do better.
              A grain of wheat eclipsed the sun of Adam !!

              Comment


              • #8
                Approx 2.5 million muslims from all arround the world perform the Haj and take part in religious rituals such as stoning of satan.
                It's almost impossible to take away the language barrier as many are illiterate.
                So what do you do when panic breakes out?

                Comment


                • #9
                  Neo,

                  In many Hindu pilgrim sites such as Tirupathi, Sabarimalai and the Kumbh Mela, crowds gather in very huge numbers.

                  In fact in the last Kumbh Mela, it was widely reported that it was the single biggest gathering of humans at a particular place in the world. I think Jay was referring to that, and the manner in which we have learnt to cope with such massive numbers.

                  From the television pictures from Mecca, one can see orderly tents and massive brigdes all over the place. But I read somewhere that the Saudi's ont lean too much on the pilgrims because they feel that every pilgrim has the right to finish his pilgrimage the way in which he wants.

                  Dont you think that they can do more if they want to ?

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Dont they have any police, soldiers or rules on how to act at the event?

                    I understand its a religious event and its significance but we dont have these kind of problems in Vatican City and if they can keep order among hundreds of thousands with only a few hundred Swiss Guards and Vatican Gendarmerie then I think the Saudis can as well.

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