Over 1000 pilgrims died during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage: officials

More than 1,000 people have died during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia as worshipers faced extreme temperatures at Islamic holy sites in the desert kingdom, officials said on Sunday.

More than half of the deaths were people from Egypt, according to two officials in Cairo. Egypt has revoked the licenses of 16 travel agencies that helped unauthorized pilgrims travel to Saudi Arabia, authorities said.

Saudi Arabia has not commented on the deaths during the pilgrimage, which is required of every able-bodied Muslim once in their lifetime.

The Egyptian government announced the deaths of 31 approved pilgrims due to chronic illnesses during this year’s Hajj, but did not offer an official number for other pilgrims.

However, a cabinet official said at least 630 other Egyptians died during the pilgrimage, with most reported at the emergency aid complex in Mecca’s Al-Muaysem district.

Confirming the data, an Egyptian diplomat said most of the dead were buried in Saudi Arabia.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief journalists.

Saudi authorities cracked down on unauthorized pilgrims, expelling tens of thousands of people. But many, mostly Egyptians, managed to reach the holy sites in and around Mecca, some on foot. Unlike authorized pilgrims, they had no hotels to escape the sweltering heat.

In its statement, the government said the 16 travel agencies had failed to provide adequate services to the pilgrims. It said these agencies illegally facilitated the travel of pilgrims to Saudi Arabia using visas that did not allow their holders to travel to Mecca.

The government also said officials from the companies had been handed over to the prosecutor for investigation.

The deaths also included 165 pilgrims from Indonesia, 98 from India and dozens more from Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Malaysia, according to The Associated Press. Two American pilgrims had also died.

The AP could not independently confirm the causes of death, but some countries such as Jordan and Tunisia blamed the high heat.

Associated Press reporters saw pilgrims pass out from the sweltering heat during the hajj, especially on the second and third days. Some vomited and collapsed.

Deaths are not uncommon during the Hajj, when sometimes more than two million people travel to Saudi Arabia for the five-day pilgrimage. The history of the pilgrimage has also seen deadly stampedes and epidemics.

But this year the score was unusually high, suggesting exceptional circumstances.

A 2015 stampede in Mina during the hajj killed more than 2,400 pilgrims, the deadliest incident to ever hit the pilgrimage, according to AP data. Saudi Arabia has never acknowledged the full toll of the stampede. A separate crane collapse at Mecca’s Grand Mosque earlier that year killed 111.

The second deadliest incident during the Hajj was a stampede in 1990 that killed 1,426 people.

During this year’s Hajj period, daytime high temperatures ranged between 46 degrees Celsius and 49 degrees Celsius in Mecca and the holy sites in and around the city, according to the Saudi National Meteorological Center. Some people fainted while trying to perform the symbolic stoning of the devil.

The Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, is one of the largest religious gatherings in the world. More than 1.83 million Muslims performed the Hajj in 2024, including more than 1.6 million from 22 countries and about 222,000 Saudi citizens and residents, according to Saudi Hajj authorities.

Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars on crowd control and safety measures for those attending the annual five-day pilgrimage, but the sheer number of participants makes it difficult to ensure their safety.

Climate change may make the risk even greater. A 2019 study by MIT experts found that even if the world manages to mitigate the worst effects of climate change, the Hajj will take place at temperatures exceeding an “extreme danger threshold” from 2047 to 2052, and from 2079 to 2086.

Islam follows a lunar calendar, so the Hajj comes about 11 days earlier each year. Until 2029, the Hajj will take place in April, and for several years after that it will fall in winter, when temperatures are milder.