Stampede kills at least 453 as tragedy strikes hajj again

At least 453 people were killed and hundreds injured in a stampede at the annual hajj in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, in the second tragedy to strike the pilgrims this year.

The stampede, one of the worst incidents to hit the hajj in nearly a decade, broke out during the symbolic stoning of the devil ritual, the Saudi civil defence service said.

Emergency operations were under way at the site, about five kilometres (three miles) from Mecca.
It was not immediately clear what had caused the stampede, which left 719 injured.

Helicopters were flying over the area and the sirens of dozens of ambulances could be heard, AFP reporters said.

It was the second major incident this year for hajj pilgrims, after a construction crane collapsed on September 11 at Mecca's Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest site, killing 109 people including many foreigners.

Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims had converged on Mina on Thursday to throw pebbles at one of three walls representing Satan, the ritual that marks the last day of the hajj.
The world's 1.5 billion Muslims were on Thursday marking Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, the most important holiday of the Islamic calendar.

The hajj is among the five pillars of Islam and every capable Muslim must perform it at least once in a lifetime.

In the past the pilgrimage was for years marred by stampedes and fires, but it had been largely incident-free for nearly a decade following safety improvements.

In January 2006, 364 pilgrims were killed in a stampede during the stoning ritual in Mina.

- Iran fumes -

Saudi Arabia's arch-foe Iran accused Riyadh of safety errors after at least 15 of its citizens died in the stampede.

The head of Iran's hajj organisation, Said Ohadi, said that for "unknown reasons" a path had been closed off near the scene of the symbolic stoning of the devil ritual where the accident later took place.
"This caused this tragic incident," he said on Iranian state television, giving the death toll, indicating that fatalities and casualties could rise.

Ohadi said the path closures had left only three routes to the area where the stoning ceremony was held.

"Today's incident shows mismanagement and lack of serious attention to the safety of pilgrims. There is no other explanation. The Saudi officials should be held accountable."

Iran's deputy foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said Saudi Arabia's envoy would be summoned to the foreign ministry in Tehran over the incident.

"We can in no way be indifferent to this irresponsible behaviour of Saudi Arabia. This will be dealt with through diplomatic channels," he said on state television.

- Two million pilgrims -

Thursday's ritual took place at a five-storey structure known as the Jamarat Bridge, which cost more than $1 billion to build, and which was used during earlier pilgrimages.

Almost one kilometre (less than a mile) long, it resembles a parking garage and allows 300,000 pilgrims an hour to carry out the ritual.

The faithful had gathered until dawn Thursday at nearby Muzdalifah where they chose their pebbles and stored them in empty water bottles.
They had spent a day of prayer Wednesday on a vast Saudi plain and Mount Arafat, a rocky hill about 10 kilometres (six miles) from Mina, for the peak of the hajj pilgrimage.

It was not immediately clear if the stoning ritual at Mina would continue as planned until Saturday after the stampede.

The ritual emulates the Prophet Abraham, who is said to have stoned the devil at three locations when he tried to dissuade Abraham from God's order to sacrifice his son Ishmael.

At the last moment, God spares the boy, sending a sheep to be sacrificed in his place.

The world's Muslims commemorated Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son by slaughtering cows, sheep and other animals on Thursday.

Figures released Thursday by the official Saudi Press Agency said 1,952,817 pilgrims had performed this year's hajj, including almost 1.4 million foreigners.

Celebrations of Eid al-Adha were also marred in neighbouring Yemen, where a suicide bomber struck a mosque in the capital Sanaa in an attack targeting Shiite worshippers that killed at least 25 people and wounded dozens during prayers.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Sanaa has been shaken by a string of bombings by the Daesh (IS) jihadist group in recent months targeting Shiites.
Source: AFP