90 Indians among over 1000 Hajj pilgrims dead in Mecca as intense heat takes toll
Mecca: Over 1,000 pilgrims have died during this year's hajj as of Thursday due to extreme heat in Saudi Arabia' pilgrim town Mecca, according to AFP.
As per the latest report, out of the total fatalities, 90 were from India, with the number set to rise further.
The news agency, citing diplomats, reported on Thursday that at least 600 Egyptian pilgrims had died, highlighting the oppressive heat worsening conditions of the pilgrimage in this year's sweltering temperatures.
This figure was 323 on Tuesday, with most succumbing to heat-related illnesses, two Arab diplomats told AFP.
"All of them (the Egyptians) died because of the heat," except for one who sustained fatal injuries during a minor crowd crush, one of the diplomats said.
The diplomat added that the total figure came from the hospital morgue in the Al-Muaisem neighbourhood of Mecca.
According to the report, unregistered pilgrims accounted for more than half of the deaths.
According to an Arab diplomat, 630 of the deceased Egyptian pilgrims were unregistered pilgrims.
Furthermore, Egyptian officials in Saudi Arabia received 1,400 reports of missing pilgrims, including the confirmed dead.
Fatalities have been confirmed from several countries, including Jordan, Indonesia, Iran, Senegal, Tunisia, and Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, though specific causes were not always disclosed.
Jordanian officials reported 20 missing pilgrims, with 80 initially unaccounted for who were later found in hospitals.
Saudi Arabia has not released overall fatality figures but reported over 2,700 cases of "heat exhaustion" on Sunday alone. Last year, over 200 pilgrims, mostly from Indonesia, were reported dead.
Social media platforms have been flooded with photos and information requests for the missing, as families frantically search for their loved ones amid the rising death toll.
More than 1.8 million people are taking part in this year's Hajj, one of the world's largest religious gatherings, according to the Saudi government.
Last year, only 240 pilgrim deaths were reported, most of them Indonesians.
However, Saudi Arabia's health ministry has denied any heat-related deaths.
On Monday, the ministry stated that there were no significant heat-related deaths among this year's pilgrims.
Reuters cited Jameel Abualenain, a health ministry official, who attributed the deaths to varied health conditions and pre-existing illnesses among the pilgrims.
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