Death toll from Hajj stampede reaches 251

The death toll from a stampede during the stoning ritual at the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca rose to 251 today.

“Seven of the wounded succumbed to their injuries,” said Saudi Health Ministry spokesman Khaled al-Marghalani.

Bishr Abdullah, one of hundreds injured in Sunday’s stampede, recounted the horror that he experienced.

When the pushing began from two directions, – Abdullah, jammed in the midst of a crowd of pilgrims close to a tall stone pillar – had no place to turn.

The Nigerian pilgrim slipped and fell beneath many sandaled feet.

“When the pressure intensified, I could not breathe and I fell. People stepped on me, but luckily someone I don’t know pulled me out,” he said today from his bed at King Faisal Hospital in Mecca, where he was recovering with a dislocated shoulder.

Abdullah was one of nearly 250 pilgrims injured in Sunday’s stampede during the often perilous stoning of the devil ritual that killed 244 worshippers this year.

Pilgrims also have been trampled to death on their way to the stoning ritual in 1994, 1998, 2001 and last year.

Today, waves of pilgrims were jostled or shoved their way through the crowds to continue with the devil-stoning rituals.

Ambulances were seen whisking away a few pilgrims overcome by the crush, but no further deaths or major incidents were reported.

Most of those killed in Sunday’s tragedy on the plains of Mina outside Islam’s holy city of Mecca were Asians, with the biggest number of dead identified thus far from Indonesia and Pakistan.

One was said to be from western Europe.

It was the worst tragedy in seven years at the annual Muslim pilgrimage, which is often marred by deadly fires, stampedes and riots.

The crowd got out of control Sunday as people moved along a wide ramp leading to the stoning of the devil” ritual – where pilgrims throw pebbles at three stone pillars, symbolising their contempt for the devil.

Saudi authorities said that with pressure from behind, a few pilgrims fell down and panic set off a stampede.

About two million Muslims are participating in this year’s pilgrimage to Mecca. To control the crowds, the Saudis set quotas for pilgrims from each country.

After the stoning rituals are completed, the pilgrims have to walk around the Kaaba, the black cubic structure in the centre of Mecca’s Grand Mosque, to finish the hajj.