Iran has led growing criticism of Saudi Arabia after at least 717 people died and 863 were injured in a Hajj stampede near the holy city of Mecca on Thursday.
... killed on Thursday in a crush at Mina, outside the Muslim holy city of Makkah, where some two million people are performing the annual Hajj pilgrimage, ...
It happened during the "Stoning of the Devil."
Pilgrims had been walking from a tented area towards a large structure overlooking the Jamarat pillars where the symbolic stoning of the devil is carried out.
A spokesman for the Saudi interior ministry, Maj Gen Mansour al-Turki, said initial reports indicated that two crowds coming from opposite directions converged at the intersection of streets 204 and 223 and people started to push and to shove.
What is not yet clear is how that could have happened. Some unconfirmed accounts say a nearby street or path had been closed, forcing those heading to the ritual site to use the same route as those leaving.
It is also the second disaster to strike in two weeks, after a crane collapsed at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, killing 109 people.
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