There have been numerous incidents during the Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to the cities of Mecca and Medina, that have caused loss of life. Every follower of Islam is required to perform the Hajj in Mecca at least once in their lifetime, if able to do so; the pilgrimage is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. During the month of the Hajj, Mecca must cope with as many as three million pilgrims.
Plane travel makes Mecca and the Hajj more accessible to pilgrims from all over the world. As a consequence, the Hajj has become increasingly crowded. City officials are required to control large crowds and provide food, shelter, sanitation, and emergency services for millions. Despite these efforts, incidents have still occurred.
Crushes and failures of crowd control
The dense, surging crowds, trekking from one station of the pilgrimage to the next, can cause a progressive crowd collapse. At densities above six to seven persons per square meter, individuals cannot move, groups are swept along in waves, individuals jostle to find breath and to avoid falling and being trampled, and hundreds of deaths can occur as a result. The Stoning of the Devil (ramī aj-jamarāt) ceremony is particularly crowded and can be dangerous. Pilgrims ritualistically throw pebbles at three walls (formerly pillars before 2004) which represent the three places where the Hadiths describe how the Devil tempted Abraham. It is one of a series of ritual acts that are performed during the Hajj.
Some notable incidents include:
2 July 1990: A stampede or crush inside a pedestrian tunnel (Al-Ma'aisim tunnel) leading out from Mecca towards Mina and the Plains of Arafat led to the deaths of 1,426 pilgrims, many of them of Malaysian, Indonesian and Pakistani origin.
23 May 1994: A stampede killed at least 270 pilgrims at the Stoning of the Devil ritual.
9 April 1998: At least 118 pilgrims were trampled to death and 180 injured in an incident on Jamaraat Bridge.
5 March 2001: 35 pilgrims were trampled to death in a stampede during the Stoning of the Devil ritual.
11 February 2003: The Stoning of the Devil ritual claimed 14 pilgrims' lives.
1 February 2004: 251 pilgrims were killed and another 244 injured in a stampede during the stoning ritual in Mina.
22 January 2005: A stampede through the stoning ritual in Mina led to the killing of three pilgrims
12 January 2006: A stampede or crush during the Stoning of the Devil on the last day of the Hajj in Mina killed at least 346 pilgrims and injured at least 289 more. The incident occurred shortly after 13:00 local time, when a busload of travelers arrived together at the eastern access ramps to the Jamaraat Bridge. This caused pilgrims to trip, rapidly resulting in a lethal crowd collapse. An estimated two million people were performing the ritual at the time.
24 September 2015: At least 1,470 pilgrims were killed during a crush and stampede. An Associated Press (AP) report compiled from official reports and statements totaled the deaths at at least 2,236, over 700 more than the figures from Saudi authorities, and the worst toll so far in Mecca. The AP later updated its estimate to 2,411 pilgrims killed.
December 1975: An exploding gas cylinder caused a fire in a tent colony and resulted in the deaths of 200 pilgrims.
15 April 1997: 343 pilgrims were killed and 1,500 injured in a tent fire. The tents are now fireproof.
13 February 2002: Forty Hajj pilgrims from the UAE died when the bus they were traveling in collided head-on with a truck in Saudi Arabia's Al Ihsa province.
1 November 2011: Two pilgrims, a wife and husband, died in a coach fire. There were two coaches in the convoy, and a person in the second coach noticed smoke billowing from the coach in front. He radioed the driver to stop. Everybody evacuated the coach, and as the last two were getting out, the coach suffered three explosions.