Saudi Arabia's King has issued a decree halting all Saudi
Binladin Group construction projects in the kingdom until a full investigation
of last week's deadly crane collapse at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, a report on
state-run Saudi Arabian radio said Tuesday.
On Friday, a
construction crane crashed through the roof of the Grand Mosque in Mecca,
killing 107 people and injuring at least 238 others days before a yearly
pilgrimage that draws millions to the mosque.
The Saudi Binladin Group, a construction conglomerate founded by
the father of the late al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, was in charge of an
expansion project at the Grand Mosque, also known as the Masjid al-Haram.
The mosque is
the largest in the world and surrounds Islam's holiest site, the Kaaba shrine.
The crane fell10 days before the
start of the Hajj, an annual
pilgrimage expected to bring 2 million people to Mecca.
The crane, one
of many around the mosque for the expansion work, collapsed after a strong
thunderstorm hit Mecca, bringing gusty winds that shifted direction and caused
the local temperatures to drop, CNN meteorologists reported.
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud also announced that each
family who lost someone in Friday's collapse, and each person who suffered a
permanent disability, will receive 1 million riyals (about $260,000), the
state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.
All others
injured will receive 500,000 riyals (about $130,000), the agency reported.
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