Almost 250 die in Mina stampede
Agencies Mina, Saudi Arabia
A total of 244 people were trampled to death and about the same number injured on Sunday in the valley near Mecca, as Muslim pilgrims scrambled to throw stones at pillars representing the devil, Saudi Arabian Haj Minister Iyad Madani said.
Meanwhile Indonesian officials in charge of haj affairs in Jeddah and Mecca said they had checked with several hospitals and so far concluded that no Indonesian pilgrim had been a victim of the rampage.
The Saudi minister told a press conference that the stampede started at about 9:00 am (06:00 GMT) and lasted for 27 minutes.
Madani said that eight of those hurt were in a critical condition. The "Stoning of the Devil" ritual was interrupted for two and a half hours before resuming at noon, he said.
Stampedes are always a threat during the annual haj pilgrimage, which this year saw nearly two million Muslims flock to holy sites in Saudi Arabia.
"We believe that most of the dead were illegal pilgrims," Madani said, referring to those who had come earlier in the year to perform Umrah (minor pilgrimage) and stayed illegally, and local residents who had never registered for the haj.
Almost all of those who stayed on were from Egypt, Pakistan, Yemen, Sudan, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Indonesia, he said.
"Stoning the devil" marked the last stage of the haj, as Muslims around the world celebrated the first day of Idul Adha, or the Islamic Day of Sacrifice.
To cries of Allahu Akbar (God is the Greatest), the faithful throw seven small stones at each of the three 18-metre-high pillars, which stand 155 metres apart.
The devil-stoning is the most animated ritual of the annual pilgrimage and often the most dangerous. Many pilgrims frantically throw rocks, shout insults or hurl their shoes at the pillars - acts that are supposed to demonstrate their deep disdain for the devil. Clerics frown upon such action and say they are un-Islamic.
"Security forces and medical units began rescue operations, which resulted in containing the push toward the pillars, to prevent more pilgrims from falling," an unidentified Saudi Interior Ministry official was quoted as saying by the state-run Saudi Press Agency. He did not provide further details.
Security has been high, with thousands of police guarding the roads and the temporary camp city of Mina. Helicopters monitored the crowd from the air.
The Indonesian Office for Haj Affairs in Jeddah said on Sunday that so far there had been no report of Indonesian casualties.
"Our crews are still in various hospitals in Mina trying to find any Indonesians that may have been victims of the incident," Abdul Samat Syafig, an official of the office told The Jakarta Post by phone.
Meanwhile, an official of the haj communications post in Mina also said that his staff were still looking for Indonesian pilgrims in a number of hospitals in Mina.
So far, no chiefs of Indonesian haj groups had reported to the post that pilgrims had gone missing in the incident, he said.
"Those (chiefs) who came here reported Indonesian pilgrims that had died due to various illnesses," said the official who asked not to be named.
As of Sunday, 122 of the total 204,945 Indonesians on the haj had died during the pilgrimage.
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Worst disasters
Dec. 4, 1974 - 191 people killed when a plane carrying Indonesian pilgrims home crashed in Sri Lanka.
Aug. 3, 1980 - Pakistani jetliner carrying hundreds of Muslim pilgrims caught fire soon after take-off from Jeddah to Riyadh, 301 people were killed.
July 31, 1987 - 402 people, mostly Iranian pilgrims, killed and 649 wounded in Mecca when security forces clashed with Iranians staging an illegal anti-U.S. demonstration.
July 9, 1989 - Two bombs exploded in Mecca, killing one pilgrim.
July 2, 1990 - 1,426 pilgrims, including 562 Indonesians, were killed in stampede in Mecca.
May 23, 1994 - 270 pilgrims were killed in stampede in Mecca.
April 15, 1997 - Fires killed more than 340 pilgrims in Mina.
April 9, 1998 - About 180 pilgrims were trampled in Mina.
March 5, 2001 - 35 killed in stampede in Mina.