New Delhi: At least 68 Indian citizens have lost their lives during the Hajj pilgrimage this year, amid scorching heat and intense temperatures, as per reports quoting Saudi officials familiar with the matter on Wednesday. One medic said the toll stands at 550, while another official on the condition of anonymity said that the death toll stands at 600, AP reported.
This comes as Saudi Arabia as of now has not commented or provided any official toll amid the heat during the pilgrimage, a necessary required practice of every able Muslim once in their life.
According to the Saudi National Center for Meteorology, the temperatures on Tuesday, June 18, hovered at 47 degrees Celsius in Mecca and the sacred sites in and around the city.
Several onlookers stated they saw a few people faint while trying to perform the symbolic stoning of the devil.
Other than Indians, many Egyptians too lost their lives in the heat and crowd. The tight security at the complex, with an official reading out names of the dead, included people from Algeria, Egypt and India. Those who said they were kin of the dead were allowed inside to identify the deceased.
On Wednesday, an Egyptian man collapsed to the ground after he heard his mother’s name among the dead. After cried for some time before grabbing his cell phone and calling a travel agent, shouting, “He left her to die!”
As per media reports, deaths have also been reported from Indonesia, Iran, Senegal and Tunisia.
Every year, Hajj draws hundreds and thousands of pilgrims from across the world. In 2024, over 1.83 million Muslims performed Hajj including 1.6 million pilgrims from 22 countries, and around 222,000 Saudi citizens and residents, AP reported citing the Saudi Hajj authorities.
In the last few years, the hajj has occurred during the intensely hot Saudi summer.
A Saudi study published last month hinted that temperatures in the region are expected to increase by 0.4 degrees Celsius (0.72 degrees Fahrenheit) every decade.
In 2019, a study by experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that even if the world succeeds in mitigating the worst effects of climate change, the Hajj would be held in temperatures exceeding an “extreme danger threshold” from 2047 to 2052, and then from 2079 to 2086.
(With inputs from agencies)
68 Indians Among 600 Pilgrims Dead in Hajj Amid Scorching Heat: Report world-news World News | Latest International Global World News | Todays Breaking News Headlines
