VP Condoles Deaths In Mina Incident

New York (Antara Bali) - Vice President Jusuf Kalla has condoled the deaths of pilgrims in the stampede at Mina that occurred during the stone hurling ritual on Thursday morning.  

Reports about any Indonesian pilgrims dying were not yet clear. "Of course, we convey our prayers for all those who died in the stampede," the Vice President remarked after saying the Eid Adha prayer at the Al-Hikmah mosque in New York on Thursday.

The Vice President is in New York to attend the General Assembly meeting of the United Nations.

He said that the fact was that the infrastructure and procedures for smooth conduct of the hajj pilgrimage have been improving from year to year, but since the number of pilgrims continued to increase, even a small incident can prove to be fatal.

Kalla hoped that the number of Indonesian victims would not be big. The Indonesian government is waiting for information about the accurate number of the victims.

The Indonesian Consul General in Jidda and Interim Chargé D'affaires in Riyadh arrived in Mina, Mecca, to check on Indonesian hajj pilgrims following the stampede incident.

The Saudi defense authorities said till 13.30 p.m, the number of dead in the Mina stampede,  which took place at 7 a.m. local time during the Jamarah hurling ritual, had reached 310 while 400 people were reported by then to have been injured.

However, according to a report by the Al Jazerah, about 707 people died in the incident and 805 others were injured.

Indonesia's Interim Chargé D'affaires in Riyadh Sunarko said his team was checking a number of hospitals in Mina but till this afternoon, it had not come across any Indonesian victim.

Sunarko explained that the incident took place at the Mina area when the pilgrims were heading towards the Jumroh Aqobah location to perform the stone hurling ritual. A group of pilgrims stopped all of a sudden, causing a large number of them to suddenly find themselves accumulating at one place. This led to the stampede.

He said most of the victims were pilgrims from Yemen, Egypt and Africa. (WDY)