Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 3, 1990 TAG: 9007030453
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MECCA, SAUDI ARABIA LENGTH: Medium
Sources said a power failure caused the air conditioning in the 1,500-foot-long, 60-foot-wide tunnel to switch off in 112-degree heat on Monday, setting off the stampede.
"It was God's will, which is above everything," King Fahd said of the disaster. "It was fate."
The disaster occurred during the hajj, one of the world's largest religious gatherings, which draws about 2 million Moslems. Observances had largely ended, and pilgrims were observing post-hajj rituals or preparing to leave.
Diplomats said about 1,400 pilgrims were killed. Asian and Middle Eastern diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said most of the victims were Malaysian and Indonesian pilgrims.
Doctors at hospitals said today that large numbers of Egyptians and Pakistanis were among the dead.
The official Saudi media gave no specific casualty figure, although King Fahd acknowledged indirectly that there had been a large loss of life.
He called the dead "martyrs of the Islamic world."
"Had they not died there, they would have died elsewhere and at the same predestined moment," the king said at a meeting Monday night with pilgrimage security officials.
The deaths shattered what had been a peaceful observance of the annual event and was the worst pilgrimage tragedy in recent years. In previous years, the celebration has been marred by terrorist attacks and riots.
Diplomats said the tunnel became packed beyond capacity when some pilgrims stopped in the middle while people outside continued to push their way in.
A witness said the tunnel, which can hold up to 1,000 pedestrians, became clogged with up to 5,000 people.
"With the lack of oxygen, a good number collapsed unconscious, and some died. There was also a stampede," said the witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
He said he helped carry victims to the ambulances waiting by the tunnel's exits, but that he did not know how many of the stricken were dead and how many were simply unconscious.
The pedestrian walkway runs under part of a mountain, but sometimes cars use it as a shortcut, filling it with choking fumes, sources said.
As the scope of the disaster became apparent, ambulances and security forces rushed to the tunnel, which joins Mecca and the pilgrim tent city of Mina.
An estimated 2 million Moslems, including 800,000 visitors from around the world, come to Islam's holy sites in and around Mecca for the hajj.
The celebration climaxed Sunday with prayers on Mount Arafat, about eight miles from Mecca.
The rituals being celebrated Monday - the Eid Al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice - commemorate the Prophet Abraham's offering of his son in sacrifice to God.
Before Monday, only a small fire at Mina and a few cases of heat fatigue had disrupted the pilgrimage season. Terrorism blamed on Iranian or Shiite Moslems has occurred in the past three years.
by CNB