RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — A
towering construction crane collapsed on Friday during a violent
rainstorm in Saudi Arabia's city of Mecca, Islam's holiest site,
crashing into the Grand Mosque and killing at least 87 people ahead of
the start of the annual hajj pilgrimage later this month.
Videos and
photos posted by social media users showed a grisly scene, with police
and onlookers attending to bloodied bodies on the polished mosque
floors.
Saudi Arabia's civil
defense authority provided a series of rising casualty numbers on its
official Twitter account. As of late Friday, it said those injured in
the disaster numbered 184.
A
photo posted online by the authority showed police and workers in
hardhats inspecting a pile of collapsed concrete slabs inside a part of
the sprawling, ornately decorated mosque.
Authorities
did not provide details on the victims' nationalities, but it was
likely that the tragedy will touch several countries.
The Grand Mosque and the
cube-shaped Kaaba within it draw Muslims of all types from around the
world throughout the year, though numbers increase significantly in the
run-up to the hajj.
Performing the pilgrimage once during one's lifetime is a duty for all able-bodied adult Muslims.
Pan-satellite
Al-Jazeera Television broadcast footage from inside the mosque compound
said to be from the aftermath of the accident, showing the floor strewn
with rubble and what appear to be pools of blood.
Another
video, on a Twitter posting, captured the apparent moment of the
crane's collapse during a heavy rainstorm, with a loud boom, screams and
confusion.
Other Saudi officials could not immediately be reached or referred queries to the civil defense statements.
Several
cranes surround the mosque to support an ongoing expansion and other
construction work that has transformed the area around the sanctuary.
Steep
hills and low-rise traditional buildings that once surrounded the
mosque have in recent years given way to shopping malls and luxury
hotels — among them the world's third-tallest building, a giant clock
tower that is the centerpiece of the Abraj al-Bait complex.
The construction giant Saudi Binladin Group is leading the mosque expansion and also built the Abraj al-Bait project.
The Binladin family has been
close to the ruling Al Saud family for decades and oversees major
building projects around the country. The Binladen family disowned one
of its many members, late al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, in the 1990s.
It
was not immediately clear who owned the crane that collapsed or whether
it was involved in the expansion of the mosque or another project
nearby.
___
Schreck reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Aya Batrawy in Dubai contributed to this report.
Source: yahoonews.com
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