Dubai, United Arab Emirates – A stampede of pilgrims at the annual hajj pilgrimage in Mecca killed hundreds Thursday in the second deadly incident at the pilgrimage in less than a week.
About 345 pilgrims were trampled to death in the incident, apparently when luggage fell from a bus, tripping pilgrims who were trampled by a wave of others behind them, an official at the Saudi Ministry of Interior said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Hundreds of people were crushed in a matter of minutes, most of them from the Indian subcontinent, the official said. More than 1,000 people were injured, The Associated Press reported.
The incident follows a Jan. 5 building collapse in Mecca that killed 76 people, making this one of the deadliest pilgrimages in recent history.
The stampede Thursday occurred at the Jamarat Bridge in Mina, about 10 miles outside Mecca, where tens of thousands of Muslim pilgrims were symbolically purging themselves of sin by pelting stones at three walls representing the devil.
It was the final ritual in a series of acts performed during hajj, the fifth and final pillar of Islam, which is a pilgrimage to Mecca that every able-bodied adult Muslim is expected to take at least once in his or her life. After Thursday’s ritual, pilgrims make a final visit to the Grand Mosque in Mecca.
The Jamarat Bridge site is a notorious bottleneck that has been the scene of most major accidents at the hajj in past years. In 2004, 245 people died in a similar incident, considered then one of the worst incidents at the hajj in recent years.
A witness on the scene Thursday said he was turned away as a stream of ambulances and paramedics rushed into the crowd. Arabic TV broadcasts showed numerous bodies, lined up and covered in sheets.
“We did not hear what happened until 5 or 5:30, and we were told to avoid the section because there was a major incident,” said Samir Barqah, a native of Mecca participating in the hajj. “Every year, there’s a rush to do this before sundown. That gives you maybe six hours to get 3 million people to pass through. It’s just impossible.”