At least 19 Hajj pilgrims killed in Saudi Arabia – Middle East and Africa

“Fourteen Jordanian pilgrims died and 17 others are missing” while performing the Hajj rituals, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry later confirmed that the 14 people had died “from sunstroke as a result of the extreme heat wave.”

The head of the Iranian Red Crescent, Pirhossein Koolivand, said separately that “so far five Iranian pilgrims have lost their lives during this year’s hajj in Mecca and Medina,” without saying how they died.

Hajj, one of the largest religious gatherings in the world, is one of the five pillars of Islam and every Muslim who has the means must perform it at least once.

During the annual pilgrimage, which this year is attended by around 1.8 million Muslims, temperatures rose well above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

Many of the rituals are performed outdoors and on foot, which is particularly challenging for older people.

Saudi Arabia has not provided any information on fatalities.

But the kingdom has taken measures to curb the heat, including air-conditioned areas, distributing water and advising pilgrims on how to protect themselves from the sun.

At least 240 people, many of them from Indonesia, died during the Hajj last year, according to reports from various countries, although the cause of death was not disclosed.

More than 10,000 heat-related illnesses were recorded last year, 10 percent of which were heat strokes, a Saudi official told AFP this week.

According to a Saudi study, temperatures in the region are rising by 0.4 degrees Celsius every decade, and the increasing heat could outstrip countermeasures.