Over 1,000 pilgrims died in this year's Hajj pilgrimage - Saudi Arabia
More than 1,000 people died during this year's Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia as the faithful faced extreme high temperatures at Islamic holy sites in the desert kingdom, officials said Sunday.
More than half of the fatalities were people from Egypt, according to two officials in Cairo. Egypt revoked the licenses of 16 travel agencies that helped unauthorised pilgrims travel to Saudi Arabia, authorities said, AP reported.
The Egyptian government announced the death of 31 authorised pilgrims due to chronic diseases during this year's Hajj, but didn't offer an official tally for other pilgrims.
However, a Cabinet official said that at least 630 other Egyptians died during the pilgrimage, with most reported at the Emergency Complex in Mecca's Al-Muaisem neighbourhood. Confirming the tally, an Egyptian diplomat said most of the dead have been buried in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi authorities cracked down on unauthorised pilgrims, expelling tens of thousands of people. But many, mostly Egyptians, managed to reach holy sites in and around Mecca, some on foot. Unlike authorised pilgrims, they had no hotels to escape from the scorching heat.
In its statement, the government said the 16 travel agencies failed to provide adequate services for pilgrims. It said these agencies illegally facilitated the travel of pilgrims to Saudi Arabia using visas that don't allow holders to travel to Mecca.
The government also said officials from the companies have been referred to the public prosecutor for investigations.
The fatalities also included 165 pilgrims from Indonesia, 98 from India and dozens more from Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Malaysia. Two US pilgrims were also reported dead.
Deaths are not uncommon at the Hajj, which has seen at times over 2 million people travel to Saudi Arabia for a five-day pilgrimage. The pilgrimage's history has also seen deadly stampedes and epidemics.
But this year's tally was unusually high, suggesting exceptional circumstances.
A 2015 stampede in Mina during the Hajj killed over 2,400 pilgrims, the deadliest incident ever to strike the pilgrimage, according to an AP count. Saudi Arabia has never acknowledged the full toll of the stampede. A separate crane collapse at Mecca's Grand Mosque earlier the same year killed 111.
The second-deadliest incident at the Hajj was a 1990 stampede that killed 1,426 people.
During this year's Hajj period, daily high temperatures ranged between 46 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit) and 49 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit) in Mecca and sacred sites in and around the city, according to the Saudi National Center for Meteorology. Some people fainted while trying to perform the symbolic stoning of the devil.
The Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, is one of the world's largest religious gatherings. More than 1.83 million Muslims performed the Hajj in 2024, including more than 1.6 million from 22 countries, and around 222,000 Saudi citizens and residents, according to the Saudi Hajj authorities.
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