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Muslim pilgrims continue hajj rites after crush kills 700

Muslim pilgrims sit by the site where pilgrims were crushed and trampled to death during the annual hajj pilgrimage in Mina, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015. The crush killed hundreds of pilgrims and injured hundreds more in Mina, a large valley on the outskirts of the holy city of Mecca, the deadliest tragedy to strike the pilgrimage in more than two decades. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
Muslim pilgrims sit by the site where pilgrims were crushed and trampled to death during the annual hajj pilgrimage in Mina, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015. The crush killed hundreds of pilgrims and injured hundreds more in Mina, a large valley on the outskirts of the holy city of Mecca, the deadliest tragedy to strike the pilgrimage in more than two decades. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy) Muslim pilgrims sit by the site where pilgrims were crushed and trampled to death during the annual hajj pilgrimage in Mina, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015. The crush killed hundreds of pilgrims and injured hundreds more in Mina, a large valley on the outskirts of the holy city of Mecca, the deadliest tragedy to strike the pilgrimage in more than two decades. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

By Associated Press 2 min read

MINA, Saudi Arabia (AP) – Muslim pilgrims somberly resumed the final rites of hajj on Friday after more than 700 people suffocated or were trampled to death when two waves of pilgrims collided in the deadliest disaster to strike the annual pilgrimage in a quarter-century.

The hajj pilgrimage is a main pillar of Islam that all able-bodied Muslims must perform once in their lifetime. This year, around 2 million people from more than 180 countries took part in the five-day pilgrimage, which ends Saturday. The mood remained somber despite the hajj coinciding with Eid al-Adha, a major Islamic holiday.

“Yesterday’s stampede was a catastrophe. We were shocked, but we can do nothing, this was their fate,” said Lolo Omar, a pilgrim from Eritrea, said near the site of the disaster in the town of Mina, just outside Islam’s holiest city, Mecca. “We wish that Allah will facilitate our pilgrimage.”

Omar, like the pilgrims involved in Thursday’s disaster, was headed toward a complex housing three columns that pilgrims pelt with pebbles in a symbolic stoning of the devil. Muslims believe the Prophet Ibrahim, or Abraham as he is known in the Bible, was confronted in this spot by the devil.

Among the 717 killed in Mina were pilgrims from Iran, Egypt, Turkey, India and Pakistan. Afghanistan’s Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs said Friday that eight Afghan pilgrims were still missing.