At least 27 pilgrims dead after Mecca hostel collapse

Rescue workers today still hoped to find survivors from an eight-storey hostel building that collapsed in Islam’s holiest city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, killing at least 27 people and marring the start of the annual gathering of millions of pilgrims.

Under spotlights, hundreds of men worked with cranes and other tools through the night to remove huge slabs of concrete from the site of yesterday’s collapse.

Some workers cut through steel girders with blow torches and others used microphones to listen for signs of life.

Relatives of people who were in the building waited all night at the scene for news of their loved ones.

“I believe that people are trapped and I still hope to find some survivors,” said Brig. Hamad al-Ahmadi, who oversaw the night operation.

Security officials on the scene said 27 people had died and 70 had been wounded.

As the rescue operation continued this morning, more than one million pilgrims headed to the nearby Grand Mosque for Friday prayers. They had gone to Mecca for the annual hajj pilgrimage that begins on Monday.

The building that collapsed, Lulu’at al-Khair, is just 200 feet from the Grand Mosque. It housed shops and restaurants and is used as a hostel during pilgrimages.

Talha al-Nizi, a Tunisian guide for pilgrims, said his group had just finished midday prayers yesterday and returned to their hotel adjacent to Lulu’at al-Khair.

“As I moved to step into my hotel, the whole building collapsed in front of my eyes. The whole street was full of dust,” said al-Nizi, who used his mobile phone to capture video and still images of the collapse.

About 1,000 rescue workers, medics and police were quickly deployed around the collapsed building.

“Fortunately the building was almost empty when it collapsed, because most of the residents were in the holy shrine at that time,” civil defence Maj. Gen. Alwani, who did not provide his first name, told government-run Al-Ekhbariya television. “Most of the casualties were from the passers-by near the building.”

A government official, who did not identify himself, told Al-Ekhbariya that the 40-year-old building’s foundations were cracked and weak. Neighbouring buildings were evacuated as a precaution, the network reported.

The victims were believed to have come from several countries, including Egypt, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia. The dead included 11 men, eight women and one unidentified body, al-Turki said.

Tunisia’s Religious Affairs Ministry reported that four Tunisians – two women and two men – died in the collapse, and six other Tunisians, all women, were admitted to hospital.

The wounded were being taken to hospitals in Mecca and Jeddah, about 40 miles to the east.

Qassim Bashir, who works at a hospital in Jeddah, said hundreds of doctors and other medics were sent to Mecca to assist the rescue and recovery efforts. He said he pulled out four bodies in “very bad shape” and that he could hear moaning and crying from inside the debris.

The courtyard of the Grand Mosque encloses the Kaaba, a large cubic stone structure that Muslims face during their five daily prayers.

The Prophet Mohammed was born in Mecca, and the Grand Mosque is central to the Muslim faith and the hajj. Daily prayers are also conducted in the mosque’s marble-paved yard, which can hold thousands.

Islam’s five pillars demand that followers profess there is one god and Mohammed is his prophet, pray five times daily, give alms, fast daily during the holy month of Ramadan and – if financially able – travel to Mecca at least once in their lifetime.

The number of pilgrims to Mecca has increased eleven-fold over the past 15 years. During that time, the Saudi government spent billions of dollars to improve accommodation, transportation and medical facilities for the “guests of Allah”.

The gathering has been hit with tragedies frequently in recent years.

The worst hajj-related tragedy occurred in 1990 when 1,426 pilgrims were killed in a stampede in an overcrowded pedestrian tunnel leading to holy sites in Mecca.

In 2004, on the final day of the ceremonies, 251 people were trampled to death when the crowd panicked during the ritual stoning of the devil. Three years earlier, 35 hajj pilgrims were killed in stampede the same ceremony.

In 1998, about 180 pilgrims were trampled to death when panic erupted after several of them fell off an overpass during the ritual. Four years earlier, in 1994, some 270 pilgrims killed in a stampede during the stoning ritual.