DUBAI, Sept 12 – A powerful storm causes the crane to collapse in Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mosque in Mecca on Friday (09/11/2015) with killing at least 107 people and injuring 238 others. The Saudi Civil Defence authority confirmed the incident on Twitter.
The crane collapse 10 days before the start of the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage expected to bring 2 million people to Mecca. The Masjid al-Haram is the largest mosque in the world and surrounds Islam’s holiest site, the Kaaba with a cube-shaped shrine that worshippers circle.
Saudi Civil Defense Director Maj. Gen Suleiman al-Amro said there were more than 50 rescue teams and 80 ambulances to converged on the mosque as part of the rescue effort after the crane collapse on 5:24pm local time (10:23 a.m. ET) at Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mosque in Mecca.
Before crane collapse, a strong thunderstorm developed over Mecca at about 4 p.m. local time Friday (9 a.m. ET) which bringing gusty winds that shifted direction and caused the local temperature to drop from 42 to 25 degrees Celsius (107.6 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit).
The Grand Mosque is no stranger to tragedies, often because of the crush of people in Mecca for Hajj. Islam requires that every Muslim capable of doing so performs a pilgrimage to the site at least once in their lifetime. In the same time, more than three million people undertook the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 2012.
Saudi authorities have taken steps since 2013 to limit the number of people involved. In the same time, the large numbers of people that have resulted in several tragedies over the years which also including a stampede in 2006 that have killed nearly 350 people.
