110 Reported Dead in Hajj Stampede

More than 110 people were reported to have been killed and 1,000 injured in a stampede today on the last day of a symbolic stoning ritual at the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.

The stampede began as tens of thousands of pilgrims filed past al-Jamarat, a series of three large stone walls representing the devil that the faithful pelt with stones to purge themselves of sin.

A member of an emergency team at the scene said at least 110 people were killed and that the number was likely to rise. A doctor with the Saudi Red Crescent said more than 1,000 were injured. He said he had heard reports that up to 300 people may have been killed.

There have been deadly stampedes in the past at the hajj, including one in 1990 that killed 1,426 people and another in February 2004 that killed 244.

Major General Mansour al-Turki, an interior ministry spokesman, said today's stampede started after some pieces of luggage dropped from moving buses. The pilgrims apparently tripped over them as they were rushing towards the stone walls, he said.

The latest stampede comes despite attempts this year to increase safety and to improve access to the al-Jamarat site, where the tall obelisks that had represented the devil have been rebuilt as stone walls 26 metres long. The new walls allow a much larger number of people to pelt them with pebbles at one time. A religious fatwa has also extended the hours permitted for the ritual.

Access had been improved at the entrance to the site where all 2.5 million pilgrims participating in the annual hajj must pass and move from pillar to pillar to throw their stones, then exit. Authorities had widened the walkways to nearly 80 metres in an attempt to reduce congestion this year.

Despite today's stampede, live television footage later showed pilgrims continuing to mass around the al-Jamarat walls. Today is the fifth day of the hajj, which this year has attracted more than two million pilgrims from almost 180 countries to the holy city of Mecca, the capital of the Makkah province.

Saudi Arabian authorities have deployed 60,000 security staff this year in an effort to avoid deadly stampedes or attacks by Islamist militants fighting the Saudi royals. Saudi television has repeatedly broadcast instructions to the pilgrims to avoid forming into crowds and not to camp along the pathway.

The stoning ritual is one of the last events of the hajj pilgrimage to Islam's holiest sites, which able-bodied Muslims with the financial means are required by their faith to do at least once in their lifetimes.

Many pilgrims had already finished the stoning ritual today and had gone back to Mecca to carry out a farewell circuit around the Kaaba, the black stone cube that Muslims face when they do their daily prayers.