345 muslims killed in stampede, in mecca, reporter on the scene Rowdy Yates

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4606002.stm

Last Updated: Thursday, 12 January 2006, 16:55 GMT


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Hundreds killed in Hajj stampede





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At least 345 Muslim pilgrims have been killed in a crush in the stone-throwing ritual during the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, officials say.

Hundreds of people have also been injured. A BBC correspondent at the scene in Mina saw dozens of bodies lined up on the ground.

The ritual has been marred by deadly stampedes in the past.

After a crush in 2004, the authorities built barriers and deployed thousands of stewards in a bid to improve safety.

Bridge surge

The stampede took place at the foot of the bridge of Jamarat, where pilgrims hurl stones at three pillars representing the spot where the devil is said to have appeared to Abraham.


View the safety changes made to the Jamarat Bridge after the previous fatal stampede.

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An interior ministry spokesman, Maj Gen Mansour al-Turki, told the Associated Press news agency the crush happened after pieces of luggage spilled from moving buses in front of one of the entrances to the bridge, causing pilgrims to trip.

At least 289 people were injured, according to the Saudi Health Minister Hamad bin Abdullah Al-Maneh.

With the local hospital in Mina overflowing, many victims of the crush were transported to medical facilities in Mecca and Riyadh, a doctor told the Associated Press news agency.

Many of the victims were reportedly from south and south-east Asia.

More than two million people were thought to have been performing the rite at the time.

Witness Abdullah Pulig, an Indian street-cleaner, described a scene of carnage.

HAVE YOUR SAY

My parents have performed Hajj and say if one person trips, the push from the crowd behind will cause the people to either trample over the guy or fall down and be trampled by others



Shabnam, Austin, US



Send us your comments


"I saw people moving and suddenly I heard crying, shouting, wailing. I looked around and people were piling on each other. They started pulling dead people from the crowd," he told the Associated Press news agency.

Ambulances and police cars streamed into the area, as security forces tried to move people away from the scene of the accident.

The pilgrims were returning via Mina after performing the Tawaf al-Wada, a farewell ceremony that involves walking around the Kaaba - a cube-like building in the centre of Mecca's Great Mosque - seven times.

HAJJ DISASTERS

1987: 400 die as Saudi authorities confront pro-Iranian demonstration
1990: 1,426 pilgrims killed in tunnel leading to holy sites
1994: 270 killed in stampede
1997: 343 pilgrims die and 1,500 injured in fire
1998: At least 118 trampled to death
2001: 35 die in stampede
2003: 14 are crushed to death
2004: 251 trampled to death in stampede


The Tawaf al-Wada is performed after the Hajj has finished.

The stoning is the riskiest ritual of the Hajj, as worshippers jostle to try to target the stones, often causing weaker pilgrims to fall under foot.


In 2004, more than 200 pilgrims were trampled to death while performing the same ceremony.

The latest deadly stampede come days after more than 70 people died when a hostel for pilgrims collapsed in the Saudi city of Mecca.

The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam and every able-bodied adult Muslim is obliged to perform it at least once in their lives.
*****

Keep movin', movin', movin',
Though they're disapprovin',
Keep them doggies movin' Rawhide!
Don't try to understand 'em,
Just rope and throw and grab 'em,
Soon we'll be living high and wide.
My heart's calculatin'
My true love will be waitin',
Be waiting at the end of my ride.

Move 'em on, head 'em up,
Head 'em up, move 'em out,
Move 'em on, head 'em out Rawhide!
Set 'em out, ride 'em in
Ride 'em in, let 'em out,
Cut 'em out, ride 'em in Rawhide.

*******

Is this how it was, or is my skitzo side, rowdy yates not accurate in his reporting qualities.

 

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I was wondering when you were going to copy paste this.

 

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Are not religous places, or ceromonies about peace why on earth are these people killing people to throw stones, at a imaginary devil, i can not think of a time in my life, when catholics have stampeded to see the pope, causing massive loss of life, every year they have this killing stampede, do you see it as a just cause, i certainly dont i see fanatics oblivious to human life, throwing stones at a invisible devil, for what to purify there soles, what with murder.

religon is about PEACE, NOT MURDER BY ACCIDENT OR OTHERWISE, these people are following through with there obsession of throwing stones at lucifer, at the cost of any or all human life, where is the sanity in this....

 

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So, i think you re smoking a cigar while sipping from your wine out of joy now!

 

Vincent, you're just upset that Muslims are better followers of religion than Christians.

- N

 

I don't care what anybody says - that is highly pathetic and I am ashamed to even to say I am apart of the same species.

Killing your own fellow religious brothers just to throw a stone against another stone and pretending it to be evil.

I want to throw ICBM's at those idiots because I think they're pathetically unsound.

 

Das Feuer liebt mich besser. Mercaptans riecht vielmal besser als uns beide!

Err, something like that. Mein Germanische skillen sind tres rudimentario, senhor. The level of intelligence in Dorksville leaves molto desiderato.

On a serious note, I was just thinking the same thing yesterday on hearing this report.

The same thing happens EVERY FRIGGIN YEAR, Mr. Bigglesworth! Millions of stampeding and fanatical Muslims trample their fellows in an effort to retrace the routes of an age old pilgrimage tradition, that their religion insists they must perform at least once in their lifetime. I believe it is the only major religion that involves such an obligatory pilgrimage.

If Islam is truly a religion of peace, surely their religious holidays should be free from violence! Instead, even that which is intended as a peaceful observation for the apparent betterment (spiritual?) of the adherents ends up being something of a bloody contest which costs lives.

I want to be kind about it, but their fanatical devotion to such external rituals, and the resulting accidental deaths of hundreds, should serve as some kind of warning to these people.

Are there any Muslims who have eschewed what is outside, and instead embraced the inner spirituality as the most important? Sufis, perhaps?

 

No seriously this is really pathetic.
When a large crowd of people get together, trip over eachother and crush themselves to death, they just kind of deserve to die, and there's really no other way of looking at it.

 

You are wrong.

What is really pathetic is when a large crowd of people get together to throw some rocks at some rocks, trip over eachother and crush themselves to death, they just kind of deserve to die, and there's really no other way of looking at it.

EDIT-

I just heard the new death toll:

Also 1 million sheep, camels and cows were sacrificed in this spectacular religious entertainment event. The meat is supposed to be divided amongst the poor.

 

Those people died serving Allah(pbuh), surely they will recieve their rewards in heaven.

 

You folks are missing the point. Those were no ordinary rocks, they were shaytan! What simpler way to show you are good and pure than to throw some rocks at a devil rock?

 

To bad all of them did not die.

 

Some of you are talking as if they meant to trample each other..its an accident. The same thing happens at concerts. Only reason the numbers are higher is because theres alot more people. Going to Hajj is no more obligatory then going to church is for Christians (I assume it can't be all that required since many Christians don't even attend church).

 

Mmm, human dominoes. Fun!

- N

 

I think I'd have MORE respect for them if they meant to do it.
The fact they didn't is what makes it so embarrassing.

 

Hillsborough.

 

You quote me on religous ceromonies, and places , and the then you quote a uk football ground to compare, since when is a football ground a religous ceromony, or place they go there for a punch up or a laugh or for fun.

As usual to justify muslims killing, you show a pathetic western comparison, that has nothing to do with religon, & everything to do with beer & booze, & male ego.

 

Right. You didn't read the report on Hillborough then. You are as heartless towards the dead in Hillsborough as you are towards the dead in Saudi, believing the former to be dead as a result of beer, booze and male ego. You totally reject the notion that the deaths at Hillsborough were the result of a gross failure of crowd management at several levels. Why does such ignorance not surprise me?

 

You have obviously never been to a uk football ground in your life, i have & i know, i have also been semi crushed at them too, the old stadiums without seats were deadly, now by law they are all seater stadiums, to stop a re-run of it again. The whole thing also had a lot to do with booze, & male ego.