Iranian National among 107 Dead in Mecca Crane Collapse
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An Iranian pilgrim was among at least 107 people killed in the Saudi Arabian holy city of Mecca when a towering construction crane toppled over during a violent rainstorm on Friday.
A large construction crane toppled over and crashed into Masjid al-Haram (the Grand Mosque) in the holy city of Mecca on Friday, killing at least 107 people and raising fears about the safety of the site before the yearly hajj pilgrimage that is expected to bring in millions of visitors to Saudi Arabia this month.
Saudi Arabia’s civil defense authority said the number of injured has risen to 238 people.
25 Iranian nationals have been injured in the incident.
Videos of the incident show the crane falling amid heavy winds and rain as well as chaos inside the mosque facility as the machinery crashed through the building.
Images also circulated on social media of worshipers covered in blood resting on the mosque’s white marble floor and laborers removing green carpets and cleaning puddles of blood.
Masjid al-Haram is the world’s largest and houses the Kaaba, the black cube that Muslims around the world pray toward and which they walk around during the pilgrimage.
The Saudi government is in the midst of a multibillion-dollar project to enlarge the mosque, and the site is currently ringed with cranes.
The millions of pilgrims who visit the country's holy sites each year pose a considerable security and logistical challenge for the Saudi government, and large-scale deadly accidents have occurred on a number of occasions in years past.
In 2006, more than 360 pilgrims died in a stampede at the desert plain of Mina, near Mecca. A crush of pilgrims two years earlier left 244 dead, The New York Times reported.
The worst hajj-related tragedy was in 1990, when 1,426 pilgrims died in a stampede in an overcrowded pedestrian tunnel leading to holy sites in Mecca.
