Death tolls crossed 900 in Saudi Arabia following a heatwave, as friends and family searched for missing hajj pilgrims on Wednesday, June 19, 2024.
Relatives who couldn’t reach their loved ones scoured hospitals and pleaded online for news after temperatures hit 51.8 degrees Celsius (125 Fahrenheit) in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, on Monday, June 17.
About 1.8 million people from all over the world, many old and infirm, took part in the days-long, mostly outdoor pilgrimage, which fell during the hot Saudi summer this year.
An Arab diplomat told AFP that deaths among Egyptians alone had jumped to “at least 600”, from more than 300 a day earlier, mostly from the unforgiving heat. The total reported dead so far reached 922, according to an AFP tally of figures released by various countries.
The diplomat later added that Egyptian officials in Saudi Arabia had received “1,400 reports of missing pilgrims”, including the 600 dead.
Mabrouka bint Salem Shushana of Tunisia, in her early 70s, has been missing since the climax of the pilgrimage on Saturday at Mount Arafat, her husband Mohammed told AFP. Because she was unregistered and did not have an official hajj permit, she was unable to access air-conditioned facilities that allow pilgrims to cool down.
Social media networks have been flooded with pictures of the missing and requests for information, as families and friends desperately search for their loved ones.
