High heat during Hajj: Death toll in Mecca rises to 64

The Foreign Ministry in Jordan confirmed the deaths of 41 Jordanian pilgrims on Tuesday. Tunisia’s state news agency TAP reported, citing a source in the Tunisian consulate in Jeddah, that 23 Tunisian pilgrims had died. On Monday afternoon, 51.8 degrees Celsius were measured in the Great Mosque of Mecca.

• Read more in Sunday’s article: 14 pilgrims die of heat during Muslim pilgrimage

Jordan’s Foreign Ministry announced that it had granted permission for burials in Mecca in cases where relatives did not want the bodies to be brought to Jordan. The Jordanian pilgrims had suffered heat stroke. The ministry had previously confirmed 17 deaths due to heat.

The pilgrimage began in Mecca on Friday evening in scorching heat. According to the Saudi Center for Meteorology, 51.8 degrees Celsius were measured in the Grand Mosque on Monday afternoon, and similarly high temperatures were recorded at other holy sites in the area.

Authorities called for sun protection

Authorities urged believers to carry umbrellas, stay away from the outdoors during the particularly hot midday hours and drink plenty of water. The news channel Sky News showed a pilgrim cooling himself off in a drinks fridge.

Last year, around two million pilgrims took part in the pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, which is one of the five basic duties of Islam. Buses and trains are already helping to bring the many believers to the holy sites, but the large crowds and extreme heat still pose a challenge for the pilgrims and law enforcement officers. In recent decades, there have also been several major tragedies, each with hundreds of deaths due to crowding.