Two million pilgrims jostle to 'stone Satan' after hajj deaths

NEARLY two million Muslims jostled to "stone Satan" yesterday, a day after 251 pilgrims died here carrying out the same ancient ritual, provoking orders from King Fahd to modernise the holy sites of Mecca and Medina where tragedy strikes with terrible regularity.

Before dawn, a vanguard of the faithful began pouring onto the esplanade, where three stone pillars represent the devil, to join the last major act of the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Channelled by hundreds of police, a tide of white-robed Muslims flowed through the arid Mina valley site as helicopters flew overhead monitoring the crush.

There were no traces left of the tragedy that struck early Sunday, injuring as many as it killed in a 27-minute stampede. More than half the dead were Asians. King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz issued a decree late Sunday for the modernisation of the holy cities in a 20-year project to be put together by ministers and senior regime officials.