At least 15 Mecca pilgrims killed as building collapses

A BUILDING used as a hostel by pilgrims in Islam’s holiest city collapsed yesterday leaving at least 15 people dead and 39 injured.

However, officials warned that the death toll could rise.

A civil defence official told Al-Ekhbariya television that the 40-year-old building’s foundation was cracked and too weak to support its weight.

Rescuers aided by bright spotlights worked into the night, searching for survivors and clearing rubble from the collapse of the eight-storey building, the latest tragedy to mar the annual gathering of millions of Muslims in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

The interior ministry said 15 people were killed and 39 were injured in the collapse of Lulu’at al-Khair, a multi-purpose building that housed a number of shops and restaurants and was rented out as a hostel during pilgrimages.

It was situated just 60 metres from the Grand Mosque, a focal point of the annual hajj pilgrimage.

About 1,000 rescue workers, medics and police scrambled over and around the collapsed building, working methodically but urgently.

“Fortunately the building was almost empty when it collapsed, because most of the residents were in the holy shrine at that time,” civil defence Major General Alwani said.

“Most of the casualties were from the passers-by near the building.”

The dead and injured were believed to have come from a number of countries, including Egypt, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia.

The prophet Mohammed was born in Mecca, and the Grand Mosque is central to the Muslim faith and the hajj. The number of pilgrims to Mecca has increased 11-fold over the past 15 years. During that time, the Saudi Government spent billions of euros to improve accommodations, transportation and medical facilities for the “guests of Allah”.

The massive gathering has been hit with tragedies in recent years. The worst hajj-related tragedy was in 1990, when 1,426 pilgrims were killed in a stampede in an overcrowded pedestrian tunnel leading to holy sites in Mecca.

In 2004, 251 people were trampled to death when the crowd panicked during the ritual stoning of the devil.

During an anti-US demonstration staged by Iranians in 1987, some 402 people, mostly pilgrims from Iran, were killed.