New hajj stampede death toll pushes past 2,000

19 October 2015, 4:26 pm

Edit

A new toll shows the crush and stampede that struck the hajj last month in Saudi Arabia killed at least 2,110 pilgrims.

The count Monday by The Associated Press comes after Saudi officials said they held a meeting about the disaster late Sunday night. The official Saudi Press Agency reported that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif bin Abdul Aziz, who is also the kingdom’s interior minister, oversaw the meeting.

Saudi emergency personnel stand near bodies of Hajj pilgrims at the site where at least 717 were killed and hundreds wounded in a stampede in Mina, near the city of Mecca, at the annual hajj in Saudi Arabia on September 24, 2015. (STR/AFP)

Saudi Arabia’s official tally from the September 24 tragedy in Mina, a few miles from the holy city of Mecca, is 769 killed and 934 injured. Officials have not updated their casualty toll since September 26, although an investigation into the causes of the tragedy is ongoing.

The previous deadliest-ever incident at hajj was a 1990 stampede that killed 1,426 people.

(AP)