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| Survivors gather around some of the victims |
Higher casualty estimates are now coming in with Reuters and Sky News reporting 700 dead.
From today's Daily Mail:
At least 450 people are crushed to death and hundreds injured in stampede during Muslim Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia
- Rescue under way after stampede in Mina where two million pilgrims were taking part in the last major rite of Hajj
- Massive crowds gather in Mecca every year with Islam requiring all Muslims to perform Hajj once in their lifetime
- Saudi officials use 100,000 police and large numbers of stewards to ensure safety and help those who lose their way
At least 453 people have been crushed to death and hundreds of others hurt in a stampede of pilgrims in one of the worst incidents in years to hit the Muslim Hajj in Saudi Arabia.
- Comes weeks after crane toppled into the Grand Mosque killing more than 100 people and injuring hundreds more
Saudi Arabia's civil defence service said rescue operations were under way after the stampede in Mina, where almost two million pilgrims were taking part in the last major rite of the Hajj.
Amateur video shared on social media showed a horrific scene, with scores of bodies – the men dressed in the simple terry cloth garments worn during Hajj – lying amid crushed wheelchairs and water bottles along a sunbaked street.
Survivors assessed the scene from the top of roadside stalls near white tents as rescue workers in orange and yellow vests combed the area, placing victims on stretchers and desperately trying to resuscitate others.
It was not immediately clear what had caused the stampede.
The Bear is not going to pretend that he's crying, because he has a massive character defect when it comes to adherents of this mad cult. Yet on some level, he recognizes that this is a tragedy and these people have relations that are grieving. The Bear recognizes that his anger is properly reserved for the originators and apologists (such as anyone who uses the BS phrase "Three Great Abrahamic Religions"). He also notes that the line, or queue, is the greatest invention of the Anglo-American culture, and one that is shockingly absent in southern Europe, southwest Asia, and, the Bear guesses, Latin countries, although he has never been subjected to the latter. Could it be that if you pack tens of thousands of excitable people into a tight place and let them mill around -- which is the only thing they know -- they are bound to stampede themselves to death? You would think that the authorities would eventually learn, but it is enough to make one wonder if they value human life the same as our selfsame Anglo-American tradition. How many concert stampedes have there been since the Who concert?
ReplyDeleteGreat comment, Bear.
ReplyDeleteI don't know. It might be that this is to be expected from time to time with so many people. But who said a religion had to require this kind of fanatical mass worship? Oh, sure, Catholics are fanatical sometimes, but not in this sort of collective way.
ReplyDeleteAnd what is the goal? Walking around an evil-looking meteor three times?
Islam is a religion of death, whose main victims (in terms of numbers at any one time) are Muslims. One has all sorts of varying emotions at an incident like this. I don't know what's right or appropriate, except to desire that somehow in some way this horrifically evil thing may be eradicated once and for all.