Saudi authorities have given up the hunt for survivors from the collapse of a hostel in the holy city of Mecca that killed 76 pilgrims, the latest tragedy to strike the annual hajj pilgrimage.
Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz was due to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the disaster yesterday, on the eve of the start of the annual pilgrimage to Islam's holiest site.
Ministry spokesman General Mansur al-Turki said 76 people were killed and 62 others wounded when the aging and overcrowded multistorey building collapsed on Thursday.
He said the dead consisted of 48 men and 28 women.
"Saudis, French nationals of Arab origin and Yemenis are among the dead," he said, adding that 40 bodies had yet to be identified.
Jordan said five of its nationals were missing, while officials in France said seven Algerians living in France were among those who died.
The United Arab Emirates announced the death of three nationals, while two remain missing.
Forty-one survivors were pulled from the rubble during the recovery operation, Turki told reporters.
Emergency teams armed with sound-detecting gear worked frantically since Thursday to try to locate survivors in the wreckage of the building, which an official charged was overcrowded.
"Through our inspection of the site ... there was a clear indication that the building was overloaded," regional civil defense director General Adel Zamzami said on Thursday.
Turki also cast doubt on the soundness of the structure, claiming that some additions to the Luluat Al-Kheir (Pearl of Grace) hotel might have been made illegally.
Survivors recounted the horror of the tragedy as they lay in the city's hospitals.
"I heard one big noise," Tayeb Mizasha, 70, an Algerian living in France, said as he lay in bed in Mecca's King Faisal hospital with broken ribs and a bruised face. "At first I thought it was an earthquake."
He said he was staying at the same hostel with 16 Algerians who had come from France to perform the hajj.
"I do not know where my wife is," Mizasha said.
In another hospital ward in Mecca, a Yemeni who worked in a clothing store on the ground floor of the building said four of his Yemeni co-workers lost their lives.
"I just found myself across the street from the building and I looked up and it was a pile of rubble," said Ali Qasim al-Rimi, 35.
"I do not know if I fled or someone pulled me out," he said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in