ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — At least 107 people were killed and 300 injured in a Saudi crane accident at Mecca’s Grand Mosque, including three Kurdish pilgrims, according to the Kurdistan region’s ministry of endowments and social affairs on Friday.
Karwan Stuni, a member of the pilgrimage delegation from the ministry of endowments and social affairs, told Rudaw, “The Kurdish pilgrims are doing well, except one who was injured in his leg, but now he is fine as well.”
The incident occurred as thousands of Muslims dressed in white gathered from all over the world for the annual Hajj pilgrimage set to begin later this month.
The governor of the Mecca region, Prince Khaled al-Faisal, has requested an investigation into the incident.
The Grand Mosque is usually at its most crowded on Fridays, the Muslim weekly day of prayer.
According to the ministry, 3,655 pilgrims from the Kurdistan region visited Mecca for the Hajj.
Saudi authorities began an investigation into the collapse of a crane at the Grand Mosque to discover what caused the incident, but it is not clear whether the dead were killed as a result of the collapse of the crane or in a stampede that followed the crash.
The head of the civil defense in Saudi Arabia, Suleiman bin Abdullah, told reporters strong winds and heavy rains caused the collapse of the crane.
Almost 800,000 pilgrims had arrived into the kingdom for Hajj.
The Grand Mosque, also called the Masjid Al-Haram, or the “the Sacred Mosque,” is built around the Kabba, the holiest site in Islam. With a capacity of as many as 4 million during the Hajj, it is also the world’s largest mosque.
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