Hajj stampede: Iran death toll rises to 465
The number of Iranian pilgrims killed in the latest hajj stampede in Saudi Arabia had risen to 465, the Iranian authority announced on Thursday.
According to state IRIB Television, full list of the victims had been released.
Tehran said about 64,000 Iranians travelled to Saudi Arabia to perform the hajj rituals this year.
It urged immediate transfer of the dead bodies to Iran, blaming the incident on Saudi Arabia’s “inefficiency and mismanagement” in handling the largest gathering of Muslims.
The Saudi authorities had earlier put the total number of pilgrims killed in the accident at 769, saying the stampede appeared to have been caused by two waves of pilgrims meeting at an intersection.
But some officials from other countries pegged the death toll from the disaster at over 1,000 and accused Saudi of deliberately downplaying the causalities.
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