68 Indians Among 645 Hajj Pilgrims Who Died In Mecca: Saudi Diplomat

Sixty-eight Indian nationals were among the over 600 individuals who died from stifling heat during this year's Hajj pilgrimage, AFP reported citing a diplomat in Saudi Arabia.

"We have confirmed around 68 dead... Some are because of natural causes and we had many old-age pilgrims. And some are due to the weather conditions, that's what we assume," the news agency quoted the diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, as saying.

The pilgrimage, which attracts millions annually to Mecca, witnessed over 2,700 cases of heat exhaustion treated in a single day. Fatalities have been confirmed by Indonesia, Iran, Senegal, Tunisia and Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, though authorities have not defined the cause.

The fresh toll arrived after two Arab diplomats told AFP on Tuesday that 550 deaths had been recorded. Of these, Egyptian pilgrims accounted for 323 deaths, while Jordanians suffered 60 casualties due to the harsh Saudi summer.

The total reported dead so far is 645 in which more than 1.83 million Muslims performed the Haj this year, including more than 1.6 million from 22 countries, according to an AFP tally.

For the past several years the hajj, whose dates are determined according to the lunar Islamic calendar, has fallen during the sweltering Saudi summer. Last year more than 200 pilgrims were announced dead, most of them from Indonesia. Dozens of Indians die every year during the Haj, mostly because of old age or ailments.

"Many Indians who perform the Hajj are elderly and most of them aren't in very good health," cited one person.

As per a Saudi study published in May, temperatures in the area where the rituals are practised rise 0.4 degrees Celsius (0.72 degrees Fahrenheit) each decade.

On Tuesday, temperatures soared to 47 degrees Celsius in Mecca and the surrounding sacred areas, according to the Saudi National Center for Meteorology. Some individuals fainted during the symbolic stoning of the devil ritual. At the Grand Mosque in Mecca, temperatures hit 51.8 degrees Celsius on Monday.