The death toll during the hajj this year has exceeded 1,000 people, the AFP news agency estimated on Thursday, indicating that more than half of them are unregistered believers who made a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia during a severe heat wave.
Details
According to an Arab diplomat who provided a breakdown showing that of the 658 people killed in the country, 630 were unregistered pilgrims, among the new deaths reported on Thursday, 58 died from Egypt.
In total, about 10 countries reported 1,081 deaths during the annual pilgrimage, one of the five pillars of Islam that all Muslims with the means must commit at least once.
The figures are obtained from official statements or diplomats working on the response of their countries.
The Hajj, the time of which is determined by the lunar Islamic calendar, this year again fell during the hot Saudi summer.
The National Meteorological Center reported a maximum temperature of 51.8 degrees Celsius earlier this week at the Grand Mosque in Mecca.
The diplomat said that the main cause of death of Egyptian pilgrims was the heat wave, which caused complications related to high blood pressure and other problems.
In addition to Egypt, the deaths were also confirmed by Malaysia, Pakistan, India, Jordan, Indonesia, Iran, Senegal, Tunisia and autonomous Kurdistan in Iraq, although in many cases the authorities did not specify the cause.
Saudi Arabia did not provide information about the dead, although on Sunday alone it reported more than 2,700 cases of "heat exhaustion".
Recall
Earlier figures indicatedthat more than half a thousand pilgrims died during the hajj to Mecca.