c. 2006 Religion News Service

DECEMBER 1975: A fire sparked by an exploding gas cylinder sweeps through a tent city at Mina, a desert location east of Mecca where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims camp on their way to perform rites at Mount Arafat and Jamarat. Some 200 pilgrims die.

NOVEMBER 1979: Saudi militants opposed to the country’s ruling family seize control of Mecca’s gigantic Grand Mosque, which houses the Kabba, taking hundreds of pilgrims hostage. French troops, allowed by special permission into Mecca, a “Muslim-only” city, help Saudi troops retake the mosque two weeks later, but not before some 250 troops, militants and pilgrims are killed.

JULY 1987: Clashes between Iranian pilgrims, who were staging political protests, and Saudi riot police leave 402 dead.

JULY 1989: A pair of bomb explosions outside the Grand Mosque leaves one worshipper dead.

JULY 1990: Panic strikes when seven pilgrims fall from a bridge and set off a stampede in a tunnel below. The death toll is 1,426.

MAY 1994: A stampede kills 270 pilgrims.

APRIL 1997: Desert winds fan a fire through the tent city at Mina that kills 343 pilgrims.

APRIL 1998: A stampede leaves between 118 and 180 pilgrims dead.

MARCH 2001: A stampede leaves 35 pilgrims dead.

FEBRUARY 2003: A stampede leaves 14 pilgrims dead.

FEBRUARY 2004: A stampede leaves 251 pilgrims dead.

JANUARY 2006: A hotel collapse in Mecca kills 76 pilgrims; a stampede leaves 363 pilgrims dead.

KRE/JL END SACIRBEY

Editors: See mainbar, RNS-HAJJ-SAFETY, transmitted Dec. 27, 2006.