A Western news agency has been offering updated tallies of the victims of a crush outside the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, each time contradicting the official figure that Riyadh has announced and has persistently refused to update since the tragedy.
The Associated Press (AP) has been releasing counts based on the official tolls announced by some of the countries whose national died in the September 24 crush in Mina, near Mecca.
Its latest tally on Tuesday, based on state media reports and official comments from 30 countries, stood at over 2,177 deaths.
The agency said “The toll keeps rising from the Sept. 24 disaster outside Mecca as individual countries identify bodies and work to determine the whereabouts of hundreds of pilgrims still missing”.
The AP report said Saudi authorities have said the fatalities from the incident stand at 769. They “have yet to address the discrepancy”.
Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization says a total of at least 4,700 people lost their lives in the incident.
The number of the Iranian fatalities is at least 464, exceeding that of other countries
source : irib
