At least 717 people have been killed in a stampede at the annual Hajj
pilgrimage, Saudi Arabia’s civil defence directorate said, as the death
toll continued to rise.
Aljazeera was there:
The directorate said at least 863 other pilgrims were
injured in Thursday’s stampede, which took place in Mina, on the
outskirts of the holy city of Mecca. The injured have been evacuated to
four different hospitals in the Mina region, according to a civil
defence spokesman.
Mina is where pilgrims carry out a symbolic stoning of the devil by
throwing pebbles against three stone walls. It also houses more than
160,000 tents where pilgrims spend the night during the pilgrimage. Al
Jazeera’s Basma Atassi, reporting from Mina, said the incident took
place in a street between pilgrim camps.
“The street where it happened is named Street 204. This stampede did
not happen at the site of the ‘stoning of the devil’ ritual, which was
happening today. “During and after the stampede the pilgrims continued
to flock into Mina to perform the devil stoning ritual.”
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