Saudi King orders review of safety

To improve the level of organisation and management of movement”

Mina

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has ordered a safety review for the Hajj pilgrimage after at least 717 people died in a stampede near the holy city of Mecca.

Another 863 people were injured in the incident at Mina, which occurred as two million pilgrims were taking part in the Hajj’s last major rite.

The King said there was a need “to improve the level of organisation and management of movement” of pilgrims.

Offering condolences to the relatives of the dead and injured, King Salman said, “We have instructed concerned authorities to review the operations plan and to raise the level of organisation and management to ensure that the guests of God perform their rituals in comfort and ease.”

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayyef, who chairs the Hajj committee, has begun an inquiry into the tragedy.

Interior ministry spokesman, Maj Gen Mansour Al Turki, said the reason for the unusual number of pilgrims at the site of the disaster was “not known yet”.

Health Minister Khaled Al Falih promised a “fast” investigation and said the crush occurred “perhaps because some pilgrims moved without following instructions by the relevant authorities”.

The stampede broke out in Mina, about five kilometres from Mecca, during the symbolic “stoning of the devil” ritual.

The UK Foreign Office said it was urgently seeking more information about whether British nationals were involved.

Pope Francis, who is visiting the US, expressed his “sentiments of closeness” with Muslims, during a prayer service at St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. Special emergency forces were heavily deployed across Mina with dozens of troops at every level of the five-storey bridge used for the stoning ritual in which pebbles are thrown at walls.

During weekly prayers at Mecca’s Grand Mosque, Sheikh Saleh Al Taleb defended the kingdom which, he said, “is capable of managing Hajj affairs” without outsiders suggesting they can do better. 

“It is unacceptable to ignore all the efforts” the country has made to improve infrastructure at the holy sites, he said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to Saudi Arabia’s defence yesterday as blame shifted towards the Saudi authorities. 

“I do not sympathise with the hostile statements against Saudi Arabia,” Erdogan told journalists.