Graphic videos available on the Internet show piles on piles of bodies, people of numerous nationality and race flung on top of each other in death. Asif's words describe much the same.
"One man from Kerala has died, and 17 Indians are injured," said SM Asif, an Indian journalist in Mecca, speaking to dna on phone, with the furore of the stampede relief work audible in the background. The Delhi-based journalist is in Mecca for Haj. He too had gone for the ritual of the stoning of the devil, in the city of Mina just east of Haj, on Thursday, when the stampede that killed so far 717 people happened.
"I was on a floor above," said Asif, recounting his experience. The stampede took place on the ground floor where, he described, 3000 to 4000 people crammed into a space meant for only a few hundred. "I had gone for the ritual when we heard noises of people running about." He added, "People had started dropping to the ground of sheer suffocation. That space is such that if one man falls then another, who may be trying to help him will also fall."
Asif described the lower floor as a round space enclosed on all sides by a jaali, a wire mesh. "One has to go round in the room for the stoning. When people started suffocating, others got scared. They tried to escape from all ends but there was just no way to get out of the area," he said. That lead to the lethal stampede.
Graphic videos available on the Internet show piles on piles of bodies, people of numerous nationality and race flung on top of each other in death. Asif's words describe much the same.
"Our officers, such as Dr Abbas who is in charge of the ambulance there, have been helping with the relief work. They have extricated almost 200 bodies. Work is still going on and the death count will go up," said Asif, now with the officials of the Haj Mission, Indian Consulate.
"It was the fault of the people in charge of security there. They should have not let so many people go inside, or they should have broken the jaali to help them out. Then so many would not have died," he said.
Though Asif informed dna about the death of one Indian man, the Haj Committee of India did not officially confirm this fact. The Committee had been fielding calls from anxious family members since afternoon.
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