Al Jazeera's Hasan Patel, reporting from Mecca, said witnesses told him that a crane fell on the third floor of the Grand Mosque around 5.45pm.
Our correspondent said the mosque was packed, even though the incident happened shortly before the 6.30pm prayer.
"Dozens of ambulances are heading to the site. The authorities closed off the area shortly afterwards," he said.
"This whole place is already a construction site. What made it worse is that around 5.30pm there was severe rain and it's just gushing down the road," he said.
"I am surrounded by people who are grieving. The mood here is of sadness."
Al Jazeera's Omar Al Saleh said bad weather was thought to be the cause of the accident.
There were reports that lightning may have struck before the crane collapsed.
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims are expected to visit Mecca for the annual Hajj pilgrimage, which starts on September 21.
Source: Al Jazeera
11/9/15
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Mecca crane collapse: 65 dead in Saudi Arabia...
ReplyDeleteAt least 65 people have died after a crane collapsed on the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, the Saudi Arabian government has said.
More than 180 people were injured in the accident, the country's civil defence authority said on Twitter.
Images from the scene showed part of a huge red crane crashed through the mosque's roof. The cause of the collapse is not known.
Mecca is currently preparing for the annual Muslim Hajj pilgrimage.
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to arrive in the Saudi city from all over the world later this month.
Reports suggested the crane fell following high winds and rain. The Arabian peninsula has been has been hit by strong sand storms over the past week.
A video posted on YouTube, which could not be independently verified, appeared to record the moment the crane fell, with a loud crash heard in the background followed by panic and shouting.
Images circulating on Twitter appeared to show numerous bodies and blood on the floor of the mosque.....BBC
At least 65 people were killed and 80 injured when a construction crane crashed into the Grand Mosque of Saudi Arabia's holy Muslim city of Mecca on Friday, the civil defence said on Twitter...
ReplyDeletePictures circulating on social media showed bloodied bodies strewn across a courtyard where the top part of the crane, which appeared to have collapsed or snapped, had crashed into it.
It was raining heavily at the time.
The incident occurred as hundreds of thousands of Muslims gather from all over the world for the annual hajj pilgrimage set to begin later this month.
The Grand Mosque is usually at its most crowded on Fridays, the Muslim weekly day of prayer.
It houses the Kaaba -- the massive cube-shaped structure towards which Muslims worldwide pray.
A massive project is currently underway to increase the area of the mosque by 400,000 square metres (4.3 million square feet), allowing it to accommodate up to 2.2 million people at once.
The mosque is surrounded by a number of cranes.
The hajj has largely been incident-free during the past few years, with Saudi Arabia investing billions of dollars in transport and other infrastructure to facilitate the movement of the huge numbers of people who take part.
(AFP)