At least 700 killed in crush at Hajj pilgrimage near Mecca

[Dr Frook]

Wow, things like this happen every few years during the Islam Hajj pilgrimage... but this year so much worse...

A huge stampede has killed at least 700 people and injured hundreds more at the annual Hajj in Saudi Arabia, in the pilgrimage's worst tragedy in a quarter of a century.

Key points
•More than 700 people killed, 863 injured
•Almost 1.4m foreigners involved in 2015 Hajj
•Iran official blames Saudi Arabia
•109 killed earlier in month when crane collapsed

The stampede, the second deadly accident to hit the pilgrims this month following a crane collapse in Mecca, broke out during the symbolic stoning of the devil ritual, the Saudi civil defence service said.

The service said it was still counting the dead, who included pilgrims from different countries, and that at least 863 people had also been hurt.

Authorities at the scene of a pilgrim crush outside Mecca
Photo: Authorities at the scene where pilgrims have been killed in a crush outside Mecca. (Twitter: Saudi Civil Defence)

Nearly two million people from across the globe were in Saudi Arabia for the Hajj, one of the largest annual gatherings in the world.

Iran said at least 43 of its citizens were dead and accused Saudi Arabia of safety errors that caused the accident.

[Shadow00]

I would like to mention this topic has legit 0 responses but some random school shootout in US with not even one tenth of casualties has 3 pages of them.

You know what that means better than I do mateys.

[Shadowstar1922]

I would like to mention this topic has legit 0 responses but some random school shootout in US with not even one tenth of casualties has 3 pages of them.

You know what that means better than I do mateys.

i didn't comment on this bc i already saw Al Jazeera's videos on it on YouTube and I talked about it with a lot of my classmates and i didn't want to comment bc it just makes me so sad.

all these events are so deperessing and these people should never have to die. idk man. idk about the other people not responding but i did my best to make it known at my school. we even had it on the announcements two days after.

[Rainshard]

I would like to mention this topic has legit 0 responses but some random school shootout in US with not even one tenth of casualties has 3 pages of them.

You know what that means better than I do mateys.

A school shooting can prompt a gun argument which is what has happened on that topic and why it has so many responses.

This does not prompt any argument, its just a sad thing people should be aware of.

[mmm]

I've heard some seriously depressing Islamaphobic shit from this one.

[Rainshard]

I've heard some seriously depressing Islamaphobic shit from this one.

Same. You just have to remember this list really, America, England, Spain, Japan, Germany have all had stampedes where even young children have died. Its really unfair that people are using their prejudices on the religion to blame for this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_stampedes

[Shadowstar1922]

I've heard some seriously depressing Islamaphobic shit from this one.

Same. You just have to remember this list really, America, England, Spain, Japan, Germany have all had stampedes where even young children have died. Its really unfair that people are using their prejudices on the religion to blame for this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_stampedes

it's key to note that a lot of the major stampedes have taken in Saudi Arabia during pilgrimage. But the initial response someone should have is, "wow, I think the Saudi Government needs to develop a plan on what to do during stampedes" or something along the lines of that not, "oh it's their stupid religion at it again killing people!"

The only reason why there's a lot of stampedes is because millions every year go to Saudi Arabia during pilgrimage. If Christians did that for Rome or Istanbul or Jerusalem, cities with strong ties to Christianity, then I guarantee you there would be a lot of stampedes where a lot of people died.

it's so sad how so many people are scared and ignorant out of what they do not know and that their first response is hate and aggression. the world needs to be more nice and happy and people need to get along. too bad stupid superpowers like to exploit lesser peoples and then wonder why they organize to get rid of them.