We’re bringing this live blog to a close tonight, as it is after midnight in Mecca.
Here’s how things stand at the moment:
Here’s how things stand at the moment:
- A construction crane has crashed through the eastern side of Mecca’s Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia, the holy building at the centre of the annual hajj pilgrimage
- 87 people are dead and 201 people are injured according to the Saudi civil defence authority’s Twitter posts.
- Extreme weather is the likely cause of the collapse, authorities said, with heavy rain, lightning strikes and high winds hitting the Muslim holy city on Friday, 10 days before the start of the hajj.
- Reconstruction work to enlarge the Grand Mosque had been ongoing for the past two years and was expected to be largely completed before this year’s pilgrimage, which begins on 22 September.
- The construction work was being led by the construction giant Saudi Binladin Group, but it is not yet known which company the crane belonged to.
- Saudi investigators are still ascertaining the identities of the dead and injured, but India said nine of its citizens were among the wounded.
- Images from inside the mosque show an enormous crater in the mosque’s stone floor, with pictures on social media of bodies covered in debris and blood stains on the tiles.
- The governor of Mecca region, Prince Khaled al-Faisal, has ordered an investigation into the incident.
Updated
Abdel Aziz Naqoor, an employee at the mosque, has told AFP he saw the crane fall after being hit by the storm.
“If it weren’t for Al-Tawaf bridge the injuries and deaths would have been worse,” he said, referring to a covered walkway that surrounds the Kaaba, the massive cube structure in the centre of the mosque, which he said broke the crane’s fall.
Mecca is no stranger to tragic accidents in modern times, particularly as hundreds of thousands descend on the city prior to the annual hajj.
The Associated Press have published a timeline of some of the gravest tragedies, most of which were caused by overcrowding, which the Saudi government had been attempting to avert by the major improvement works taking place at the Grand Mosque.
2006: More than 360 pilgrims are killed in a
stampede at the desert plain of Mina, near Mecca, where pilgrims carry
out a symbolic stoning of the devil by throwing pebbles against three
stone walls.
The day before the hajj began, an eight-story building being used as a hostel near the Grand Mosque in Mecca collapsed, killing at least 73 people.
___
2004: A crush of pilgrims at Mina kills 244 pilgrims and injures hundreds on the final day of the hajj ceremonies.
___
2001: A stampede at Mina during the final day of the pilgrimage ceremonies kills 35 hajj pilgrims.
___
1998: About 180 pilgrims are trampled to death in panic after several of them fell off an overpass during the final stoning ritual at Mina.
___
1997: At least 340 pilgrims are killed in a fire at the tent city of Mina as the blaze was aided by high winds. More than 1,500 were injured.
___
1994: A stampede during the stoning ritual at Mina resulted in 270 deaths. 1990: The worst hajj-related tragedy claims the lives of 1,426 pilgrims in a stampede in an overcrowded pedestrian tunnel leading to holy sites in Mecca.Dramatic new images have emerged from inside the mosque showing the sheer size of the red-and-white constriction crane, whose collapse has caused a huge crater in the white tiled floor of the mosque. Saudi TV has been showing images as rescue workers and security officials assess the damage, with dirt and debris across the floor.
“If it weren’t for Al-Tawaf bridge the injuries and deaths would have been worse,” he said, referring to a covered walkway that surrounds the Kaaba, the massive cube structure in the centre of the mosque, which he said broke the crane’s fall.
Mecca is no stranger to tragic accidents in modern times, particularly as hundreds of thousands descend on the city prior to the annual hajj.
The Associated Press have published a timeline of some of the gravest tragedies, most of which were caused by overcrowding, which the Saudi government had been attempting to avert by the major improvement works taking place at the Grand Mosque.
2006: More than 360 pilgrims are killed in a
stampede at the desert plain of Mina, near Mecca, where pilgrims carry
out a symbolic stoning of the devil by throwing pebbles against three
stone walls. The day before the hajj began, an eight-story building being used as a hostel near the Grand Mosque in Mecca collapsed, killing at least 73 people.
___
2004: A crush of pilgrims at Mina kills 244 pilgrims and injures hundreds on the final day of the hajj ceremonies.
___
2001: A stampede at Mina during the final day of the pilgrimage ceremonies kills 35 hajj pilgrims.
___
1998: About 180 pilgrims are trampled to death in panic after several of them fell off an overpass during the final stoning ritual at Mina.
___
1997: At least 340 pilgrims are killed in a fire at the tent city of Mina as the blaze was aided by high winds. More than 1,500 were injured.
___
1994: A stampede during the stoning ritual at Mina resulted in 270 deaths. 1990: The worst hajj-related tragedy claims the lives of 1,426 pilgrims in a stampede in an overcrowded pedestrian tunnel leading to holy sites in Mecca.Dramatic new images have emerged from inside the mosque showing the sheer size of the red-and-white constriction crane, whose collapse has caused a huge crater in the white tiled floor of the mosque. Saudi TV has been showing images as rescue workers and security officials assess the damage, with dirt and debris across the floor.
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