Saudi Arabia Starts Razing Deadly Hajj Bridge

16/01/2006| IslamWeb

Saudi Arabia has started pulling down a disaster-prone bridge near the Muslim holy city of Mecca days after more than 360 pilgrims were crushed to death there in the worst disaster to hit the Muslim Hajj in 16 years.

"The first stage of the projected overhaul of Jamarat bridge in Mena began on Saturday and will be completed and ready for next year's Hajj," said Osama al-Bar, who heads a government centre that helps organise the annual five-day pilgrimage.

"Jamarat bridge has become the most sensitive area in Hajj."

Pilgrims were killed as they jostled to perform a stoning ritual at the bridge on Thursday, the last day of this year's Hajj when more than two million Muslims converge on Saudi Arabia.

In 2004, about 250 pilgrims were crushed to death at Jamarat Bridge. A decade earlier, 270 were killed in a similar stampede. Thursday's death toll was the highest since 1,426 people were killed in a stampede in a tunnel in Mecca in 1990.

The authorities had already said they would replace the Jamara Bridge with an elaborate system of entrances and exits, including a subway, which will cost 4.2 billion riyals (1.12 billion US dollar). The project will take three years to complete.

The first stage, which will be ready for the next Hajj, involves a two-storey bridge and an underground emergency exit for pilgrims and ambulances.

Al-Bar said the development would allow Saudi Arabia to host more than the 2.5 million pilgrims it currently allows in. The bridge is 32-years-old and the legitimacy of Saudi Arabia's ruling family rests in the eyes of many Muslims on its ability to host pilgrims from all over the world every year.

PHOTO CAPTION

A doctor treats a Muslim pilgrim who was wounded in the hajj stampede at the al-Aam hospital in Mina. (AFP)