The death toll from Thursday’s stampede during a Hajj ritual outside of Mecca has risen to 769, Saudi Arabia’s health minister has said.
At a press conference on Saturday, Khalid al-Falih also said the number of people injured had risen to 934 during the crush in the tent city of Mina while on their way to perform a ritual on the first day of Eid.
Earlier, Saudi Arabia’s top religious leader has said that the stampede, the worst disaster in a quarter-century to strike the annual event, was beyond human control.
The country drew fierce criticism from regional rival Iran over its handling of pilgrims’ safety. Tehran says at least 131 of its citizens died in the disaster.
Pilgrims blamed the stampede on police road closures and poor management of the flow of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in searing temperatures.
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