Thousands of mourners have attended a funeral ceremony in Tehran for Iranian pilgrims killed in the Hajj disaster in Saudi Arabia. They chanted “death to Al-Saud,” a reference to the Saudi royal family.
On 24 September 2015, a crowd collapse caused the deaths of at least 2,070 pilgrims who were suffocated or crushed during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Mina, Mecca, making it the deadliest Hajj disaster in history.
The exact number of dead is still unclear; the Associated Press reports 2,177 dead, Reuters count is 2,070, while Agence France-Presse reports a higher figure of 2,223 killed. The official death toll from the government of Saudi Arabia has remained unchanged since two days after the event, with 769 reported killed and 934 others injured!
Iran had 465 of its pilgrims killed, while Mali had 306 and Nigeria 222.
Other countries that have more death tolls are Pakistan, Egypt, India, Cameroon, Bangladesh and Indonesia.
The incident, after huge pilgrim processions were joined in their course, leading to the catastrophic entanglement.
It has been reported that the convoy of Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud, the son of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz, had arrived at the site, forcing the pilgrims to change their original directions.
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