Hundreds of visitors have died during the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca amid scorching heat, according to press reports and foreign ministries. At least 550 people have died on Hajj, diplomats told French outlet Agence France Presse (AFP) on Tuesday. 323 of the dead were Egyptians, most of whom perished due to heat-related illness, AFP reported, citing two Arab diplomats.
Reuters was not able to immediately verify those numbers. Stampedes, tent fires, and other accidents have caused hundreds of deaths during Hajj in Saudi Arabia in the past 30 years. The pilgrimage began on Friday.
Saudi state TV said temperatures rose on Monday as high as 51.8 degrees Celsius (125.2 Fahrenheit) in the shade at the Grand Mosque in Mecca.
A 2024 study by the Journal of Travel and Medicine found that rising global temperatures may outpace strategies to deal with the heat. A 2019 study by Geophysical Research Letters said that as temperatures rise in arid Saudi Arabia due to climate change, pilgrims performing haj will face "extreme danger". 35 Tunisian citizens have died during the Hajj, Tunisian news agency Tunis Afrique Presse said on Tuesday.
Many of those deaths were due to extreme heat, family members said on social media, as other families continued to search for missing relatives in Saudi hospitals. The Jordanian foreign ministry said it had issued 41 burial permits for Jordanian pilgrims on Tuesday. Earlier, the ministry said at least six Jordanian citizens died of heat stroke durin.
