“This occurred amid troublesome climate circumstances and a really harsh temperature,” the official mentioned whereas acknowledging that the 577 determine was partial and didn’t cowl all of Haj, which formally ended on Wednesday.
“Regrettably, the variety of mortalities reached 1,301, with 83 per cent being unauthorised to carry out hajj and having walked lengthy distances underneath direct daylight, with out sufficient shelter or consolation,” the official Saudi Press Company reported.
The Haj is without doubt one of the 5 pillars of Islam, and all Muslims with the means should full it no less than as soon as earlier than they die.
Saudi officers had earlier mentioned 1.8 million pilgrims took half this 12 months, an identical whole to final 12 months, and that 1.6 million got here from overseas.
For the previous a number of years the primarily out of doors rituals have fallen in the course of the sweltering Saudi summer season.
The timing of the Haj strikes ahead about 11 days annually within the Gregorian calendar, that means that subsequent 12 months it is going to happen earlier in June, doubtlessly in cooler circumstances.
A 2019 research by the journal Geophysical Analysis Letters mentioned due to local weather change, warmth stress for hajj pilgrims will exceed the “excessive hazard threshold” from 2047 to 2052 and 2079 to 2086, “with rising frequency and depth because the century progresses”.
