All Iranians Injured in Mina Incident Back Home: IRCS
The head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society’s (IRCS’s) hospital in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, announced that all Iranian nationals injured in a recent deadly crush in Mina, near Mecca, have been transferred to the country.
“…Fortunately, there are currently no wounded Iranian nationals in Saudi hospitals or in the IRCS’s hospital in the holy city of Mecca,” Pir Hossein Kolivand said on Thursday.
He further described the process of transfering the injured Iranians to the country as “difficult and exhausting”, saying that seven of them were not in good conditions and had to remain connected to ventilators to be relocated to Iran.
Kolivand went to say, however, that the injured were transferred successfully with the cooperation of Mahan Airlines, the IRCS, Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization and the country’s health ministry.
According to Iranian officials, about 4,700 pilgrims, including 464 Iranians, were killed in the crush in Mina on September 24 when performing religious rites. Many pilgrims are still unaccounted for in the incident that marked the worst Hajj disaster in 25 years.
It came nearly two weeks after tens of Hajj pilgrims were killed in another tragic incident in Mecca.
On September 11, a massive construction crane crashed into Mecca’s Grand Mosque in stormy weather, killing at least 107 people, including 11 Iranians, and injuring 201 others.
Saudi authorities have come under fire for their inability to ensure the safety of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who converge on Mecca every year.
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