More than 1,000 people have died during this year’s hajj in Saudi Arabia, as worshipers faced extreme temperatures at Islam’s holiest sites in the desert kingdom, officials said.
More than half of the dead were from Egypt, according to two officials in Cairo, where authorities say they have revoked the licenses of 16 travel agencies that helped unauthorized pilgrims travel to Saudi Arabia.
Official Riyadh has not commented on their deaths during the pilgrimage, which every able-bodied Muslim must undertake at least once in his life.
Egyptian authorities announced that 31 unauthorized pilgrims had died during the Hajj, saying they were people with chronic illnesses, but no official figures were given for the rest of the pilgrims.
A government official said that at least 630 other pilgrims who traveled to Saudi Arabia on visitor visas had died, and that the largest number of dead was in the mortuary in Al-Muizem neighborhood in Mecca.
In the announcement, the Government stated that 16 travel agencies did not provide adequate services to pilgrims. They alleged that these agencies illegally organized pilgrims’ trips to Mecca, using visas that did not allow their users to travel to Islam’s holiest city.
Authorities also said information about officials from the agencies was sent to the public prosecutor as part of the investigation.
Among the dead were 165 pilgrims from Indonesia, 98 from India, and dozens from Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Malaysia, according to figures compiled by the AP.
Two pilgrims from the USA also died.
The AP could not independently confirm the cause of death, but some countries such as Jordan and Tunisia blamed extremely high temperatures.
Deaths are not uncommon on the five-day pilgrimage known as the Hajj, which has historically seen more than two million people travel to Saudi Arabia at the same time. Throughout the history of the Hajj, there have been deadly stampedes and epidemics.
However, the numbers this year are higher than usual.
During this year’s Hajj, the highest daily temperatures ranged between 46 and 49 degrees Celsius in Mecca and the shrines around the city, according to the Saudi National Meteorological Center.
Some people fainted while performing the symbolic act of stoning the devil.
The Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, is one of the largest religious gatherings in the world.
More than 1.83 million Muslims participated in this year’s hajj, including more than 1.6 million pilgrims from 22 countries, and about 222,000 Saudi citizens and residents, according to Saudi data, RSE reports.
