4 female pilgrims from Gombe ‘missing’ in Mecca

Four female pilgrims from Gombe state have been declared missing following Friday’s crane crash at the Holy Ka’aba Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

One other female pilgrim got injured during the incident.

Abdullahi Mai-Kano, the state Amirul-Hajj, disclosed this on Sunday while sympathising with the state pilgrims in Mecca.

Mai-Kano said the four pilgrims were from Akko, Dukku and Nafada local governments areas of the state.

He said the other faithful sustained injury in her head, but had been treated and discharged.

He added that the four pilgrims were declared missing after thorough verification and bed checking in the three houses accommodating the state pilgrims.

On Saturday, the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) declared that three Nigerian pilgrims sustained injuries in the incident.

The initial causality figure was put at 87, while injury was said to be 157 but the figures rose on Saturday to 107 killed and over 200 injured.

The incident was attributed to massive storm.

Saudi authorities said they had started identifying the victims before their burial in Makkah, in line with Islamic tradition.

The Grand Mosque, which houses the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure towards which Muslims worldwide pray, was surrounded by a number of cranes following reconstruction works that had been going on to enlarge the mosque to accommodate up to 2.2 million people.

The country experienced a stampede in 2006, which resulted in 350 deaths. That same year, a building collapse killed 76, while a stampede killed more than 200 people in 2004.