JEDDAH (SW): Number of pilgrims losing lives after a powerful storm toppled a construction crane the Masjid al-Haram, or Grand Mosque, in Mecca, has swollen to 107 while more than 200 are injured.
Saudi Arabia's civil defence authorities said on Twitter a day earlier that more than 50 rescue teams and 80 ambulances converged on the mosque as part of the rescue effort after the crane fell at 5:24 p.m. local time (10:23 a.m. ET).
Photos and video on social media showed the crane crashing through the mosque roof and the aftermath, with bodies, blood and debris spread across the courtyard. The crane fell 10 days before the start of the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage expected to bring 2 million people to Mecca.
CNN has quoted Khaled Al-Maeena, editor at large at the Saudi Gazette in Jeddah, saying the storm was so strong it uprooted trees and broke window panes throughout Mecca. The crane fell between times the mosque is crowded with people, he said.
"Had it happened an hour later it would have been much worse," he said. "Had it happened five hours earlier or four hours earlier, I think the death toll would have been more than a thousand”, he feared. Construction cranes surround the Grand Mosque, which is being enlarged to make the pilgrimage more manageable, he said.
The Saudi government is in the midst of a multibillion-dollar project to enlarge the mosque, and the site is currently ringed with cranes. Many other construction projects are also underway in Mecca, including for the world’s largest hotel, with 10,000 rooms, 70 restaurants and a helipad.
Saudi news media reported that the governor of Mecca Province, Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, had called for an investigation into the cause of the crane collapse.
In 2006, a stampede on a bridge that is part of the pilgrimage route left more than 300 people dead, and in 2004 a stampede there killed more than 200. The worst stampede, in 1990, claimed 1,400 lives.
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