More than 1,000 dead in this year’s hajj pilgrimage as Saudi Arabia faces extreme heat: report

More than 1,000 Muslim pilgrims that traveled to Islam’s holiest sites in Mecca during this year’s hajj have died amid intolerable heat in Saudi Arabia, according to a report.

The grim death toll from the trek, tallied by news outlet AFP on Thursday, showed ten countries have reported 1,081 deaths during the pilgrimage, which each Muslim is mandated to do once in their life.

The five-day hajj is determined by the lunar Islamic calendar and once again occurred in the summer when temperatures soar in Saudi Arabia. This week the mercy reached a whopping 125 degrees in the country, according to the outlet.

It’s unclear how many died from the unbearable temperatures, but one Indian pilgrim, Khalid Bashir Bazaz, said on Wednesday he “saw a lot of people collapsing to the ground unconscious.”

An Arab diplomat told AFP that the main cause of death among Egyptian pilgrims was the heat, which might have led to high blood pressure or other issues.

Hundreds of people were outside the Emergency Complex in Al-Muaisem neighborhood in Mecca as they desperately sought information about missing relatives.

One Egyptian man sobbed when he heard his mother was dead. He called their travel agent, who he blamed for her death.

“He left her to die,” he shouted as others tried to calm him down.

The hajj typically attracts hundreds of thousands annually. More than 1.83 million Muslims performed the hajj in 2024.

But many come from poor nations that have “little, if any, pre-Hajj health care,” according to the Journal of Infection and Public Health.

Scores of Muslims also save up enough money throughout their entire lives for the pilgrimage and can be elderly while suffering from health problems when they finally are able to go, the journal said.

Thousands of unregistered pilgrims also attempted to participate in the ritual. Because they do the trek without an expensive permit, they’re unable to cool down in air-conditioned spaces that are provided for the 1.8 pilgrims officially allowed to participate, according to AFP.

Of the 658 Egyptians who died, 630 were unregistered, per the outlet, citing the diplomat.

While Saudi Arabia has yet to reportedly offer details on the fatalities, it reported more than 2,700 people suffered from “heat exhaustion” on Sunday alone.   

With Post wires