From Gulf News
At least 65 people were been killed and 154 injured after a crane fell in Makkah’s Grand Mosque, Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defence authority said on its Twitter account, an accident that came just weeks before the Muslim annual Haj pilgrimage.
Kuwait News Agency Kuna reported that the “giant crane’s” fall was caused by heavy rain and strong winds in Makkah on Friday night, adding that civil defence teams had been rushing to the scene.
Health authorities declared a red alert and the head of the Red Crescent in Makkah said that 39 ambulances were promptly dispatched to the mosque to treat and transport the injured.
The Grand Mosque is usually at its most crowded on Fridays, the Muslim weekly day of prayer. It houses the Kaaba – the massive cube-shaped structure towards which Muslims worldwide pray.
Pictures circulating on social media showed pilgrims in bloodied robes and masses of debris from a part of the crane that seemed to have crashed through a ceiling.
Saudi authorities go to great lengths to be prepared for the millions of Muslim who converge on Makkah to preform the sacred pilgrimage.
Last year, the kingdom reduced the numbers permitted to perform Haj for safety reasons because of construction work to enlarge the Grand Mosque.
The Haj has largely been incident-free during the past few years, with the kingdom investing billions of dollars in transport and other infrastructure to facilitate the movement of the huge numbers of people who take part.Khaled Al Habshi, head of the Red Crescent in Makkah, said 39 ambulances had been mobilised to receive the injured.
A massive project is currently underway to increase the area of the mosque by 400,000 square metres, allowing it to accommodate up to 2.2 million people at once.
Around two million people are expected to be in Makkah within 10 days to perform pilgrimage, the last of the five pillars of Islam. Thousands of would-be pilgrims have already reached the city.
