On Thursday 24 September 769 people were crushed to death in the Muslim Holy City in Mecca. Each year, the Hajj brings millions of people to Islam’s holiest sites.
The incident occurred during the final days of the Hajj when two large groups of pilgrims converged on a narrow road. 863 people are believed to be injured.
The stampede was caused when hundreds of thousands of people merged on a five-storey structure called the Jamarat Bridge to perform a ritual stoning of the devil.
Escape routes and entrances to nearby camps were blocked by guards and police, who closed the roads. The lack of exits caused people to begin climbing over tents pilgrims had been sleeping in.
Survivors told media that minimal room and intense crowding caused people to suffocate and eventually trample one another to death.
“Everybody was trying to survive,” injured pilgrim Abbas Tijani of Nigeria said from his hospital bed. “People were stepped on by people. Many people were on the ground and attempting to pick them up would lead to another disaster.”
The largest number of casualties identified so far came from Iran. Iran has accused Saudi Arabia of mismanaging the annual pilgrimage and has vowed to take legal action against the nation.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed that Muslim countries should demand Saudi Arabia be held to account for the deaths.
Iranian state media has suggested the death toll was far higher and Iranian state television has said 169 Iranian pilgrims died, as well as more than 300 missing and 100 injured.
Saudi Arabia’s health minister blamed the disaster on pilgrims themselves for not “following instructions”.
The Saudi government has spent billions of dollars upgrading and expanding Hajj infrastructure and crowd control technology.
The death toll from the stampede means this is one of the worst disasters to strike the annual Hajj pilgrimage in 25 years. In previous years, visitors have died in a number of fires and stampedes.
The Hajj is the world’s largest annual gathering of people. It is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by all male adult Muslims who are capable. The pilgrimage is one of the five pillars of Islam.