At least 87 people were killed and over 180 others injured when a construction crane crashed into the Grand Mosque of Mecca in Saudi Arabia yesterday, the head of Saudi Arabia's civil defence authorities told Al Ikhbariya television.
Among the injured, 25 were Bangladeshi nationals, Arab News said, quoting the Bangladesh consulate in Saudi Arabia.
Crane collapses on Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Photo: Stringer/EPA
Al Arabiya television earlier said the crane had fallen because of strong storms – western Saudi Arabia has been hit by strong sand storms in the last few days. Witnesses said the crane had collapsed around 5:45pm local time.
The Emir of Makkah Prince Khaled Al-Faisal has commissioned a committee to investigate the cause of the deadly collapse.
Pictures circulating on social media showed bloodied bodies strewn across a courtyard where the top part of the crane, which appeared to have collapse or snapped, had crashed into it.
Initiated in 2011, a massive project is currently underway to increase the area of the mosque by 400,000 square metres, allowing it to accommodate up to 2.2 million people at once, reports AFP. The mosque is surrounded by a number of cranes.
The tragedy comes ahead of the annual hajj pilgrimage set to begin on September 21. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims have already gathered in Mecca from all over the world for the hajj.
The Grand Mosque, or Sacred Mosque, surrounds the Kaaba – the most sacred site in Islam. It is usually at its most crowded on Fridays.
Earlier, around 350 pilgrims died in a stampede in 2006. A building collapse the same year killed 76. Another stampede killed more than 200 in 2004.
