Hajj stampede

Muslim pilgrims arrive to perform the symbolic 'stoning of the devil' ritual as part of the hajj pilgrimage in Mina, near Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca, on June 16, 2024

Pilgrims on Sunday performed the last major ritual of the hajj, the "stoning of the devil", in western Saudi Arabia as Muslims around the globe celebrated the Eid al-Adha holiday.

Saudi Arabia has said that security forces had cleared hundreds of thousands of unregistered pilgrims from Mecca ahead of the Hajj which begins this week.

Crowd management is a major concern during the annual pilgrimage, one of the five pillars of Islam which drew more than 1.8 million Muslims last year, according to official figures.

At least 28 Turkish pilgrims died during the period of Hajj in Saudi Arabia, Turkey's top cleric told reporters on Aug. 12.

More than two million Muslims on Aug. 11 threw stones at a symbolic representation of the devil as part of the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.           

At least 72,000 Turkish pilgrims have arrived in Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj, according to a local religious official.

You must have heard about the latest disaster in Mecca, Islam's holiest city, on Sept. 24. More than 700 pilgrims died in a stampede on the way to the ritual of "stoning the devil." And this was only a repetition of similar disasters that happened again in Mecca, and again during the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage that millions of Muslims come from all around the world to do.

At least 717 pilgrims were killed on Sept. 24 in a crush at Mina, outside the Muslim holy city of Mecca, where some two million people are performing the annual haj pilgrimage, Saudi Arabia's civil defence authority said.