Saudi officials: Over 700 dead in hajj pilgrimage stampede

Show Caption Hide Caption Saudi officials: Over 450 dead in hajj pilgrimage stampede More than 450 people were killed and over 700 injured in a stampede Thursday during the annual hajj pilgrimage just outside Mecca, Saudi officials said. The civil defense directorate said teams were leading pilgrims to safety and that rescue operati

At least 717 people were killed and more than 850 injured in a stampede Thursday outside Mecca during the annual hajj pilgrimage, Saudi officials said.

It was the deadliest incident to strike the event in more than two decades, and it comes less than two weeks after a crane collapse at Mecca's Grand Mosque killed more than 100 pilgrims.

Saudi Arabia's civil defense directorate said Thursday's incident happened in Mina, about 3 miles from Mecca — Islam's holiest city — and tweeted images of rescuers helping injured pilgrims lying on the ground. It said the dead were of different nationalities.

The directorate said rescue teams swept in and led pilgrims to safety and that operations were continuing, Al Arabiya reported. Officials said that 4,000 rescue workers and 220 ambulances were sent to the scene.

King Salman later expressed his condolences and pledged a speedy investigation. He said he has asked for a review of “all existing plans and arrangements … to improve the level of organization and management of the movement” of pilgrims at the hajj, the Associated Press reported.

Tragedy is no stranger to the hajj, which draws massive crowds in 100-degree heat. In 1990, more than 1,400 Muslim pilgrims en route to Mecca suffocated or were trampled to death in a stampede into an air-conditioned pedestrian tunnel. Thursday's death toll far surpasses the one in 2006, when around 350 people died during a similar stampede.

On Sept. 11, at least 111 people were killed and nearly 400 injured when a crane collapsed into a section of Mecca's Grand Mosque.

Stampedes have happened before in Mina, a valley where the symbolic "stoning of the devil" — the last major rite of the pilgrimage — occurs. Pilgrims sleep in 160,000 tents in Mina during the hajj. Hundreds of thousands of people had gathered Thursday for the rite, where pebbles are thrown against three stone pillars representing the devil.

At a news conference before sunset prayers, the Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, told Al Arabiya and other news sites that a street "witnessed unprecedented high number of pilgrims" compared to previous years. He said groups of pilgrims on buses were allowed to descend onto the pathways that lead to the Jamaraat Bridge before others had cleared the area.

In a statement, Saudi Arabia's health minister blamed the tragedy on "undisciplined pilgrims" who hadn't followed instructions, CNN reported.

Iran, a Shiite nation and often a bitter rival of its Sunni neighbor, blamed Saudi security. Saeed Ohadi, head of Iran's Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization, said 47 Iranian men were killed.

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said the USA is "deeply saddened" by Thursday's deaths. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the deceased and injured, as well as to the people of Saudi Arabia and other countries whose citizens died or were injured," he said.

Some 2 million people are taking part in this year's hajj pilgrimage, which started Tuesday. Muslims around the world are currently marking Eid al-Adha, one of Islam's two most important holidays.

Saudi officials introduced safety improvements after the 2006 stampede during the devil-stoning ritual. The day before that hajj began, at least 73 people died when an eight-story building near the Grand Mosque collapsed.

After the 2006 stampede, the Jamaraat Bridge and the pillars were demolished and rebuilt. The new wider, multilevel bridge is aimed at allowing easier and safer access to the columns.

All able-bodied Muslims with the financial means are required to undertake the hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam and the largest annual mass gathering in the world, at least once in their lifetime.