Saudi Arabians killed in Stampede

by Ifra Mahmood, staff reporter

Every year, Muslims go on a pilgrimage to Mecca for Eid al-Adha. This starts on the 23rd of October and ends the evening of the 24th. This year, a deadly incident occurred, the first deadly incident in 25 years.

After a crane collapsed at Mecca two weeks ago, another tragedy occurred. During this year’s pilgrimage, a stampede resulted in the death of 700 people, and injured 900 more. As 2 million pilgrims were finishing the last step for Hajj in over 100 degrees temperature, around 9am local time, while heading back to their cool air conditioned tents, a sudden rise of panic begun. After a lot of pushing and shoving, shoes and white robed bodies were left behind.

“It is very devastating to see how many people lost their lives on a holy day for the religion of Islam due to others that were in a rush,” senior Marcela Abanto said.

While ambulances and cops rushed to the scene, bystanders watched, and some even took pictures of the tragedy. From the millions of pilgrims that died, bodies that were found were people from 13 nations. India’s foreign minister reported on Twitter that 14 Indian citizens had died. From Egypt there were 8 deaths including the people that were injured. More deaths include six people from Pakistan, four people from Turkey, one hundred thirty one Iranians and Saudi Arabians said six members of its civil defense forces were injured during the stampede.

“I feel that this whole incident could’ve been prevented if people were patient and if it was more organized,” junior Kayla Morrell said.

Many others have occurred during Hajj in the previous years, but the latest is the deadliest since 1990, when over 1,400 people died at Mina. Saudi officials are now trying to find ways to keep the pilgrimage organized and safe for the years ahead.