Mecca Tunnel Deaths Blamed on 7 Who Fell : Saudi Arabia: The interior minister puts the death toll at 1,426. He says overcrowding contributed to the panic.

A frantic stampede that killed more than 1,400 Muslim pilgrims inside a pedestrian tunnel was prompted by the tumbling of seven people from a bridge leading to the tunnel, Saudi Arabia’s interior minister said Tuesday.

Prince Nayif ibn Abdulaziz put the death toll at 1,426, making it the worst pilgrimage tragedy in recent history.

Reporters were barred from the General Hospital at Mina, the tent city connected by the tunnel to Mecca. Officials said the government ordered that journalists not be allowed to interview or photograph victims.

The tragedy shattered what had been a peaceful observance of the annual pilgrimage, or hajj, for the first time in four years. In previous years, the celebration was marred by terrorist attacks and riots.

The pedestrian tunnel, under part of a mountain, is 500 yards long and 20 yards wide. It was built under a $15-billion development project launched by the government at holy sites two years ago.

The air-conditioned tunnel was packed “multiple times beyond its capacity, with some 50,000 people inside,” when the tragedy occurred, Nayif said. The temperature outside had soared to 112 degrees.

Pilgrims also had crowded onto the pedestrian bridge, and as they pushed forward, seven fell to the tunnel entrance below.

“The fall of the seven spread terror, and the tremendous throngs of the pilgrims caused them all to tumble onto each other,” he said on state-run television.

Witnesses said the panic intensified when power inside the tunnel was suddenly cut off. Most victims died of suffocation or were trampled in the ensuing stampede.

Nayif, who is the Saudi monarch’s brother, did not say how many people were injured, and he also did not give the nationalities of the victims.

Asian and Middle Eastern diplomats said the victims included Egyptians, Indians, Pakistanis, Indonesians, Malaysians, Turks and Saudis.

Islam prescribes quick burial of the dead, but in case of accidents of great magnitude, bodies are allowed to stay in morgues until governments or relatives decide whether they should be flown home or buried in the holy cities.

King Fahd said Monday that the incident “was God’s will, which is above everything.”

“It was fate. Had they not died there, they would have died elsewhere and at the same predestined moment,” he said.

In remarks distributed by the official Saudi Press Agency, Fahd said: “Safety lies with the hajjis’ abiding by official instructions and rules, which were issued in good time ahead of the (pilgrimage) season.”

In Kennebunkport, Me., President Bush expressed condolences to the pilgrims’ families.

BACKGROUND

The annual pilgrimage known as the hajj is the world’s largest religious gathering. Islam requires that all Muslims who can afford it make the trip to the faith’s holiest shrines in Saudi Arabia at least once in their lifetime. During the hajj, pilgrims must abstain from sex and may not quarrel, cut their hair or even kill a fly. Pilgrims begin by praying at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, circling seven times around the Kaaba, a granite cube honored as the house of Allah. Last year, an estimated 1.8 million Muslims from more than 80 nations went on the annual pilgrimage. An estimated 2 million people attended this year.