More than 1,300 people died during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia as the faithful faced extreme high temperatures at Islamic holy sites in the desert kingdom, Saudi authorities announced Sunday.

Saudi Health Minister Fahd bin Abdurrahman Al-Jalajel said that 83% of the 1,301 fatalities were unauthorized pilgrims who walked long distances in soaring temperatures to perform the Hajj rituals in and around the holy city of Mecca.

Speaking with the state-owned Al Ekhbariya TV, the minister said 95 pilgrims were being treated in hospitals, some of whom were airlifted for treatment in the capital, Riyadh. He said the identification process was delayed because there were no identification documents with many of the dead pilgrims.

He said the dead were buried in Mecca, without giving a breakdown.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    66
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    4 months ago

    I still sorta think we shouldn’t have killed the planet with pollution and deforestation. I know it’s the sort of outrageous position that gets ExxonMobil’s CEO in a froth, but still. It just seems wrong, somehow.

      • CitizenKong@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        4 months ago

        Yep, it’s not the planet’s first mass extinction rodeo. A few hundreds of thousands of years, and it’ll be right as rain again. Humanity will very likely just be a distant memory then.

  • Grimy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    29
    ·
    4 months ago

    The pilgrimage is going to become like one of those tropes where only one person ever comes back alive and he becomes king.

  • ummthatguy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    25
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    4 months ago

    Where faith and logic fail to see eye to eye, we get such needless tragedy like this.

    • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      25
      ·
      4 months ago

      1 person of average intelligence…hmmm okay, all good. 10 people is Ok. 100, 500, 1000 all good.10k 🤔 hmm things starting to feel a little crowded. 100k, all take 1 step to the left, one steps on another’s foot and bam, you got a human stampede. 2,400 deady In just a few seconds. The average intelligence in the stampede is probably minimal.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      4 months ago

      I kinda woulda assumed that with all the infrastructure there they’d be able to get people water, at least.

      • rbesfe@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        4 months ago

        They have infrastructure, but it’s only for people who are on the registered list of 1.8 million. Anyone not on that list is taking a risk that I hope is made clear to them.

    • 800XL@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      4 months ago

      This explains the anti-abortion stance of the right. Can’t allow abortions because it’s more important they grow up to suffer by their god’s hands as they make a pilgrimmage to worship that god. As thanks he lets them die suffering and miserable from the decisions of their god’s other believers. You know, the ones with all the oil and the heads of the companies that profess to believe and vote for people who will keep this shit going.

  • Mediocre_Bard@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    4 months ago

    It’s what Muhammad would have wanted.

    Edit: Amusingly, explaining the search results for “Rule 34 Muhammad” to my 10-year-old daughter was less awkward than I anticipated.