MINA, Saudi Arabia — Two giant waves of Muslim pilgrims collided at an intersection Thursday near a holy site in Saudi Arabia, and more than 700 people were crushed and trampled to death in the worst disaster at the hajj in a quarter-century.
“People were climbing over one another just to breathe,” said Abdullah Lotfy of Egypt. “It was like a wave. You go forward and suddenly you go back.”
The hajj, which drew 2 million people from more than 180 countries this year, is a huge logistical challenge for Saudi Arabia. The kingdom has spent billions of dollars to accommodate the growing number of pilgrims and maintain safety and security at Islam’s holy cities of Mecca and Medina for the annual event.
Saudi authorities began an investigation, said Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, adding that initial reports showed two crowds coming from opposing directions converged at an intersection in Mina, on the outskirts of Mecca, when the pushing and shoving started.
“Unfortunately, these incidents happen in a moment,” al-Turki said at a news conference.
But four survivors questioned how officials managing the flow of people could allow two big crowds going in different directions to intersect on two streets packed with pilgrims.
“What happened was more than they were ready for,” Lotfy, 44, told The Associated Press.
As of late Thursday, the Saudi civil defense directorate said the death toll was 719, but that probably would rise as bodies continued to be counted and sent to the morgue. At least 863 people were injured, the directorate said.
An AP journalist saw bodies still lying on the ground more than 10 hours after the crush and ensuing stampede in Mina, a large valley containing 160,000 tents for accommodations about 3 miles from Mecca. One crowd had just finished a ritual in which pilgrims throw pebbles at three stone columns representing the devil when it ran into another wave of people heading to perform the rite.
Sudanese pilgrim Mohammed Awad, 36, and his 56-year-old father were separated when people began pushing and shoving. Awad said he tried to get out of the crush of bodies for about 30 minutes and eventually climbed over a gate with others. It took him an hour before he could look for his father, who was under at least 10 bodies — but still alive.
It was the second major accident during this year’s hajj season. On Sept. 11, a construction crane crashed down onto the Grand Mosque, killing 111 people and injuring more than 390.
The science of stampede
“It’s largely a physical phenomenon, not a psychological one,” says Dirk Helbing, a professor of computational social science at ETH Zurich, who has studied crowds and disasters.
When the density is too high, movements of a body “transfers forces to other bodies. These forces can add up and create uncontrollable movements in the crowd,” he said Thursday.
“As a result … people might fall on the ground and might be trampled by others” or die of suffocation as others fall on top of them, he said.
As more and more people pour in, the density builds up, setting the stage for lethal turbulence. Even for those who stay on their feet, the pressure of the surrounding bodies builds up “and people can’t breathe,” said Keith Still, a professor of crowd science at Manchester Metropolitan University in England.
“People don’t die because they panic. They panic because they are dying.”
The Associated Press
