More than 1,000 Muslim pilgrims died during this year’s annual Hajj to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, according to CBS.
The Hajj is a religious pilgrimage that most Muslims are required to take at least once during their lifetimes, as the Deseret News previously reported.
Normally, it is a time of devotion, self-reflection and worship, but this year, it turned deadly.
Those who died this year came from a variety of countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Authorities from some of these countries have indicated that intense heat caused the wave of deaths, though Saudi authorities have not given an official statement yet.
Are deaths common during the Hajj?
A death toll this devastating is unusual for the Hajj, according to The Associated Press. Nevertheless, fatalities occur every year, often from travel- and crowd-related causes.
The pilgrimage presents issues like overcrowding, stampedes and disease outbreaks that, when coupled with traveling great distances and the harsh desert climate of Saudi Arabia, can lead to disaster for pilgrims with preexisting health conditions.
Saudi Arabia has poured funding into safety measures, but the millions of people who participate in the Hajj each year, including many who do not register their attendance, are still at risk of health complications.
Heat is reaching dangerous thresholds in Saudi Arabia. Climate change has helped propel the temperature upward and could do so dramatically over the next several decades, per CBS.
This year, temperatures at the Grand Mosque in Mecca reached 51.8 degrees Celsius, or 125 degrees Fahrenheit, the article said.
Confusion in the aftermath
In the wake of this year’s Hajj, friends and family of missing pilgrims are frantically searching for them. The authorities read out the names of the dead to crowds of distressed travelers, according to The Associated Press. Next of kin were permitted to see bodies in order to identify them.
An Egyptian man who heard the name of his mother started shouting over the phone at his travel agent, the article noted. “He left her to die,” he said about the agent while onlookers tried to assist him.
Others are taking to social media with requests for information, per France 24.
“I received a call from (a woman in Egypt) begging me to put any post on Facebook that can help track (her mother) or find her,” said a Saudi Arabian man. “The good news is that until now we did not find her on the list of the dead people, which gives us hope she is still alive.”