CAIRO — A stampede at one of Islam's holiest sites crushed to death at least 345 worshipers Thursday, tainting with tragedy the annual hajj pilgrimage to the Muslim religion's birthplace in Saudi Arabia.
As thick waves of worshipers made their way through the desert plain of Mina to perform one of the fundamental rituals of hajj, lost luggage piled up underfoot and tripped pilgrims. With thousands of eager Muslims pressing from behind, the bodies quickly piled up -- and the crowd trampled them.
More than 1,000 people were injured in the crush.
"The bodies were piled up," Egyptian pilgrim Suad abu Hamada told Associated Press. "I couldn't count them. They were too many."
"We tried to encircle the women to protect them," said an Egyptian pilgrim who spoke with Al Arabiya satellite television channel from his hospital bed. "But it was useless. They are all gone."
The stampede took place as the pilgrims clambered toward a massive pedestrian bridge to pelt seven pebbles at each of the three pillars representing the devil. Mina, a stretch of desert outside the holy city of Mecca, usually draws the thickest crowds of the hajj and has been the scene of similar stampedes.
Saudi authorities had widened the bridge and built extra ramps this year in hopes of easing the flow of worshipers. They had also lengthened the duration of the rite so that the pilgrims would be less frenzied.
Two million Muslims from all over the world have traveled to the Saudi holy sites this year to participate in the hajj.
All Muslims of sound body and financial ability are required to perform the pilgrimage once in their lifetime; the hajj is one of the five pillars of the Islamic faith.
"It's a very terrible situation. You know, today we almost died because when the accidents happened they had to stop the flow of people and the people were just pushing over each other," Khaled Batarfi, a Saudi newspaper editor who was near the scene, said in a telephone interview. "You're being pushed from behind and around."
Although banned by the Saudi government from covering the hajj, the Arabic satellite channel Al Jazeera aired live footage of the scene after the stampede. It showed bodies lying on the ground, covered with white sheets.
An unnamed Libyan pilgrim who said he had witnessed the stampede phoned Al Jazeera to vent his anger at security forces.
