No fewer than 717 pilgrims were killed on Thursday, while 863 were injured during a stampede which occurred at an Islamic event held in the city of Mina, about two miles from Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The event was one of the last rituals of the Hajj season, an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, which is known as “stoning the devil.” The Thursday tragedy is the deadliest in the city since 1990 when 1,426 people died in a similar stampede. In 2006, the stampede killed 363 people, Al Jazeera reports.


Read more from RAW GLOBAL NEWS via http://www.rawglobalnews.com/news/717-die-in-hajj-stampede-in-mecca-tragedy-nigerians-among/