Fourteen killed in Muslim pilgrimage

FOURTEEN pilgrims were trampled to death yesterday during a ritual in the annual Muslim pilgrimage in which crowds of people throw pebbles at three stone pillars representing the devil’s temptations.

Some pilgrims fell and were killed by the crush of people around them, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

As one group of pilgrims finished their ritual stoning and left the site, they met up with another group, swelling the crowd to dangerous proportions, the agency quoted hajj security director Abdel Aziz bin Mohammed bin Said as saying.