No fewer than 717 pilgrims were killed on
Thursday, while 863 were injured during a stampede which occurred at an
Islamic event held in the city of Mina, about two miles from Mecca,
Saudi Arabia.
The event was one of the last rituals of the Hajj season, an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, which is known as “stoning the devil.”
The Thursday tragedy is the deadliest in
the city since 1990 when 1,426 people died in a similar stampede. In
2006, the stampede killed 363 people, Al Jazeera reports.
According to the Civil Defence
Authorities in Mina who confirmed 717 deaths in the Thursday incident,
the number had been climbing steadily, despite over 4,000 workers
deployed along with 220 ambulances to the scene of the disaster.
It was gathered that officials had yet to ascertain what led to the sudden surge.
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