At least 550 hajj pilgrims die after temperatures soar above 50°C at Mecca
At least 550 muslims making a pilgrimage to Mecca have died due to extreme heat.
It is believed 323 of those killed during the Hajj were Egyptian pilgrims, with around 60 Jordanians also succumbing to heat-related symptoms as temperatures in the Saudi Arabian holy land surged to over 50C throughout the week.
Deaths are not uncommon at the Hajj, which has seen at times over 2 million people travel to Saudi Arabia. There have also been stampedes and epidemics throughout the pilgrimage’s history.
However, the number of dead this year suggests something caused the fatalities to swell. A local diplomat told reporters ‘All of them died because of heat’ except for one who sustained fatal injuries during a minor crowd crush, while Saudi authorities have reported treating more than 2,000 pilgrims suffering from heat stress over the weekend.
Temperatures at the Grand Mosque in Mecca hit 51.8C on Monday, according to the Saudi national meteorology centre.
AFP journalists following the hajj on Monday also reported seeing pilgrims pouring bottles of water over their heads as volunteers handed out cold drinks and fast-melting chocolate ice-cream to help them keep cool.
Speaking near the Grand Mosque on Wednesday, Khalid Bashir Bazaz, an Indian pilgrim, said he ‘saw a lot of people collapsing to the ground unconscious’ in Mecca as people fainted while trying to perform the symbolic stoning of the devil.
Saudi officials have attempted to curb the casualties by advising pilgrims to use umbrellas, avoid exposure to the sun and drink plenty of water as they make the pilgrimage.
But many of the hajj rituals, including the prayers on Mount Arafat which took place on Saturday, involve being outdoors for hours in the daytime.
Some pilgrims described seeing motionless bodies on the roadside and ambulance services that appeared overwhelmed at times.
Many Egyptians said they lost track of their loved ones in the heat and the crowds. More than 1.83 million Muslims performed the Hajj in 2024, including more than 1.6 million from 22 countries, and around 222,000 Saudi citizens and residents, according to the Saudi Hajj authorities.
Most countries have not specified how many deaths were heat-related, but on Tuesday, a diplomat tried to downplay the scale of the event by claiming the death toll had been boosted by a large number of unregistered Egyptian pilgrims.
Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars on crowd control and safety measures for those attending the annual five-day pilgrimage, but the sheer number of participants makes ensuring their safety difficult.
Climate change could make the risk even greater. A 2019 study by experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that even if the world succeeds in mitigating the worst effects of climate change, the Hajj would be held in temperatures exceeding an ‘extreme danger threshold’ from 2047 to 2052, and from 2079 to 2086.
A 2015 stampede in Mina during the hajj killed over 2,400 pilgrims, the deadliest incident to ever strike the pilgrimage, according to an AP count. Saudi Arabia has never acknowledged the full toll of the stampede. A separate crane collapse at Mecca’s Grand Mosque, which preceded the Mina disaster that same year, killed 111 people.
The second-deadliest incident at hajj was a 1990 stampede that killed 1,426 people.
The kingdom’s ruling Al Saud family maintains a major influence in the Muslim world through its oil wealth and management of Islam’s holiest sites.
Like Saudi monarchs before him, King Salman has taken the title of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, referring to the Grand Mosque in Mecca, home to the cube-shaped Kaaba that Muslims pray towards five times a day, and the Prophet’s Mosque in the nearby city of Medina.
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