Mecca Tragedy: Over 500 Haj Pilgrims Die of Heatstroke Amid 50°C Temperatures

HEJAZ: Diplomats reported on Tuesday that at least 550 pilgrims died during the hajj. This highlights the difficult and exhausting nature of the pilgrimage, which once again took place in extremely hot weather this year.

Two Arab diplomats coordinating their countries' responses told AFP that at least 323 of those who died were Egyptians, with most of them succumbing to heat-related illnesses.

One of the diplomats said that all the Egyptians died from the heat, except for one who suffered fatal injuries in a minor crowd crush. The total number of deaths came from the hospital morgue in the Al-Muaisem neighborhood of Mecca.

The diplomats said that at least 60 Jordanians also died, an increase from the official count of 41 reported earlier on Tuesday by Amman.

The new deaths bring the total reported by various countries to 577, according to an AFP count.

The diplomats said the total number of deaths at the Al-Muaisem morgue, one of the largest in Mecca, was 550.

The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, and every Muslim who is able to do so must complete it at least once in their lifetime.

The pilgrimage is increasingly impacted by climate change, according to a Saudi study published last month. The study found that temperatures in the area where the rituals are performed are rising by 0.4 degrees Celsius (0.72 degrees Fahrenheit) every decade.

Temperatures reached 51.8 degrees Celsius (125 degrees Fahrenheit) at the Grand Mosque in Mecca on Monday, according to the Saudi national meteorology center.

A 2024 study published in the Journal of Travel and Medicine found that rising global temperatures might outpace efforts to manage the heat. A 2019 study in Geophysical Research Letters indicated that as temperatures increase in arid Saudi Arabia due to climate change, pilgrims performing the hajj will face "extreme danger."

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