Timeline: Hajj Disasters

The annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, known as the hajj, has been plagued by disaster in recent years, leaving thousands of pilgrims killed, many in stampedes.

This year around 2.5m people from around the world were participating in the pilgrimage when at least 345 of them were killed in a stampede today.

It started when pilgrims tripped over luggage that had been dropped amid the crowds of people rushing to carry out the devil-stoning ritual at the al-Jamarat site in the city of Mina, which is just outside Mecca.

Last week, 76 people were killed when a hostel in Mecca collapsed in a narrow street.

Around 3,000 people have died in incidents on the hajj in the last 20 years.

Previous disasters in recent years include:

February 1 2004
244 pilgrims killed and a similar number injured at al-Jamarat

March 5 2001
35 people killed in stampede at al-Jamarat

April 9 1998
Around 180 pilgrims trampled to death when panic erupted after several fell off an overpass at al-Jamarat

April 15 1997
Fires driven by high winds tear through a sprawling, overcrowded tent city at Mina, trapping and killing more than 340 pilgrims and injuring 1,500

May 23 1994
270 pilgrims, most of them Indonesian, killed at al-Jamarat

July 2 1990
1,426 pilgrims, many of them Malaysians, Indonesian and Pakistanis, killed in stampede in overcrowded pedestrian tunnel leading to holy sites in Mecca in the worst hajj tragedy of modern times

July 9 1989
Two bombs explode in Mecca, killing one pilgrim, and wounding 16 others. Saudi authorities blame Iranian-inspired terrorists and later behead 16 Kuwaiti Shia Muslims for bombings. Iran denied involvement.

July 31 1987
402 people, mostly Iranian pilgrims, killed and 649 wounded in Mecca when security forces clash with Iranians staging illegal anti-US demonstration