Saudi announces revision of Haji security plan for next year

Saudi Arabia announced Friday a revision of the Hajj security plan for the next season after the deadly and worst stampede in 25 years that killed over 700 pilgrims on Thursday.

According to local press, one high reason of the incident is the negligence of pilgrims to crowd control rules while carrying a ritual of stoning the devil in Mina area in Mecca on Thursday morning.

The Saudi authority hasn't yet announced the nationalities of the deceased or the injured which exceed 800.

Local media Al Arabiya, however, highlighted that among the deceased there were 131 Iranians, 14 Egyptians, 14 Indians, 7 Pakistanis, three Algerians, three Indonesians, one Dutch and 87 Moroccans, while Turkey announced that 18 of its pilgrims are missing.

At a press conference Thursday, Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki told reporters that the street at which the stampede took place "witnessed an unprecedented high number of pilgrims" compared to previous years.

Turki said the investigation would look into what caused an unusual density of pilgrims to congregate at the location of the disaster. "The reason for that is not known yet," he told a news conference in Mina.

Although the condolences were made by countries all over the world, Iran was outraged by the incident, urging an quick investigation.

Iran also demanded for an international supervision of Hajj, which has been rejected by the Saudi authorities.

Saudi Arabia considered itself as the protector and the geographic center of Islam, saying it has never asked for financial help from other Islamic states although millions of U.S. dollars are spent each year on the event. Endit