332 Hajj pilgrims died so far this season: Saudi officials

9/22/2015 4:44:05 AM

(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) A total of 332 pilgrims have died so far while performing this year’s Hajj pilgrimage according to officials quoted Monday by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

While the news agency did not indicate the reasons for the deaths it is believed that 107 of them were caused by last week’s crane collapse inside Mecca’s Grand Mosque.

As of Sunday the total number of pilgrims to have arrived in the country to perform the pilgrimage stood at roughly 1000400 according to officials quoted by SPA – a slight decrease on last year’s number.

In a related development the SPA reported that Saudi civil defense teams were able to extinguish a fire that broke out early Monday morning on the 11th floor of a Makkah hotel full of pilgrims.

While some 1500pilgrims were temporarily evacuated from the hotel four Yemeni pilgrims reportedly suffered minor injuries.

According to Saudi officials quoted by the SPA the accident was caused by an electrical short circuit.

ByAhmed Masri / Ali Abo Rezeg

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