More than 1,300 people died during this year's Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia as the faithful faced extreme high temperatures at Islamic holy sites in the desert kingdom, Saudi authorities announced Sunday.
All but 31 of them were unauthorized pilgrims, according to two officials in Cairo.
Egypt has revoked the licenses of 16 travel agencies that helped unauthorized pilgrims travel to Saudi Arabia, authorities said.
Those agencies left pilgrims in limbo in Mecca and the holy sites in scorching heat, the newspaper said.
AP journalists saw pilgrims fainting from the scorching heat, especially on the second and third days of the Hajj.
Persons:
Fahd bin Abdurrahman, Jalajel, Egypt's, Mina
Organizations:
Sunday, Saudi Health, Saudi, Saudi National Center for Meteorology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Locations:
Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Saudi, Riyadh, Cairo . Egypt, Mecca's Al, Muaisem, Egypt, Ahram, Indonesia, India, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Malaysia, U.S, Islam