At least 1,300 people died during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia due to the extremely high temperatures in the holy city of Mecca, the authorities said.
Abdurrahman Al-Jalajel, Saudi’s health minister, revealed on Sunday that 83 per cent of the fatalities were unauthorized pilgrims who walked long distances in soaring temperatures to perform the Hajj rituals in and around the holy city.
Mr Al-Jalajel explained that 95 pilgrims were being treated in hospitals, some of whom were airlifted for treatment in the capital, Riyadh.
He noted that many of the dead pilgrims had no identification documents, hence the delay in their identification.
According to him, the fatalities included more than 660 Egyptians, while 31 of them were unauthorized pilgrims.
However, officials in Cairo said Egypt had revoked the licences of 16 travel agencies that helped unauthorised pilgrims travel to Saudi Arabia.
One official revealed that Egypt sent over 50,000 authorised pilgrims to Saudi Arabia this year.
Most of the dead were reported at the Emergency Complex in Mecca’s Al-Muaisem neighbourhood.
Also, fatalities included 165 pilgrims from Indonesia, 98 from India and dozens more from Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Malaysia.
Two U.S. citizens were also reported dead, according to an Associated Press tally.
During this year’s Hajj period, the Saudi National Centre for Meteorology said daily high temperatures ranged between 46 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit) and 49 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit) in Mecca and sacred sites in and around the city.
Some people also fainted while trying to perform the symbolic stoning of the devil.
The Hajj is one of Islam’s five pillars and one of the world’s largest religious gatherings.
No less than 1.83 million Muslims performed the Hajj in 2024.
The Saudi Hajj authorities confirmed that this includes more than 1.6 million from 22 countries and around 222,000 Saudi citizens and residents.
