A construction crane crashed through the roof of the Grand
Mosque in Mecca, killing 107 people and casting a grim shadow on a yearly
pilgrimage that draws millions to Saudi Arabia.
At least 238
others suffered injuries when a powerful storm toppled the crane, according to
the nation's civil defense authorities.
The crane fell 10 days before the start of the Hajj, an annual pilgrimage
expected to bring 2 million people to Mecca.
The mosque is
the largest in the world and surrounds Islam's holiest site known as the Kaaba.
'Everybody was pushing'
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud
visited the site of the crane collapse Saturday, according to the state-run
Saudi Press agency.
The ruler gave
his condolences to the victims' families and vowed to investigate the cause of
the accident. He also visited a hospital where he wished the wounded a speedy
recovery.
Will the
accident deter pilgrims? One American says it won't stop her.
"My main
concern is safety issues that arise with such a big crowd," said Faten
Abdelfattah, 32, of Texas, who was leaving Saturday. "It's a reminder to
put my trust in God and that I can't stop death if it's my time whether I'm
there or sleeping safely in bed."
She thinks the
Saudi government will take extra precautions.
"I feel
more comfortable after learning that they prevented pilgrims from entering the
[site of the Kaaba] to check on construction equipment," she told CNN.
"I believe they have the pilgrims' best interests in mind and after the
incident they won't leave anything to chance."
Witnesses posted
photos and video on social media showing the crane crashing through the mosque
roof. Scores of bodies, blood and debris lay scattered across the courtyard.
"We just
washed and were getting ready to head to the Masjid al-Haram for the Maghrib
prayer (sunset prayer)," said Yahya Al Hashemi, 30, a CNN iReporter who shot iPhone video of the crane striking the roof of the mosque.
"It was a
sandstorm which turned to rainstorm and lot of the construction covering boards
were flying around, and lots of cracking noises which unfortunately ended with
this tragedy. ... Everybody was pushing trying to escape from inside towards
the exits," Al Hashemi said.
The crane
collapsed after a strong thunderstorm hit Mecca, bringing gusty winds that
shifted direction and caused the local temperatures to drop, CNN meteorologists
reported.
Trees uprooted, glass broken
The storm was so strong, it uprooted
trees and broke windows throughout Mecca, said Khaled Al-Maeena, editor at the
Saudi Gazette in Jeddah.
The crane fell
during a lull in visitors at the mosque, he said.
"Had it
happened an hour later it would have been much worse," he said. "Had
it happened five hours earlier or four hours earlier, I think the death toll
would have been more than a thousand.
Construction
cranes surround the Grand Mosque, which is undergoing expansions to make the
pilgrimage more manageable, he said.
"The irony
is that all this expansion was being done to see to the welfare of the
pilgrims," he said.
Victims from various nations
Nations scrambled to account for their
pilgrims after the crash.
The Egyptian
health ministry said 12 of its nationals were injured while India said it
received reports that nine of its pilgrims were wounded.
Pakistan's
foreign ministry said that 22 of its nationals were hospitalized in Saudi
Arabia with severe injuries. Pakistani embassy officials are headed to Mecca
from Riyadh to find out if there were any fatalities.
Saudi officials
have not released a breakdown of the nationalities of the casualties.
No stranger to tragedies
Tragedy has hit Mecca before, often
because of the throngs of people there for the Hajj.
In 2006, a
stampede killed at least 363 people. As with other incidents, it happened
during a religious ritual in which the pilgrims stone a symbolic devil.
Hundreds were
killed in other stampedes in 2004 and
1998, and 1,426 died in 1990.
Islam requires
every Muslim who is physically and financially able to make the journey to
Mecca at least once in a lifetime.
Hajj occurs two
months and 10 days after Ramadan ends, during the Islamic month of Dhul-Hijjah.
Nearly 800,000
pilgrims had arrived in Saudi Arabia by this week for Hajj, authorities said.
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