Death toll at Saudi stampede rises to 453: Saudi civil defense.

[Warren Stupidity]

The death toll from a stampede during the annual Muslim hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia on Thursday has risen to 453 people of various nationalities, the Saudi civil defense said.

It said that the crush, caused by large numbers of people gathering at Mina, outside the Muslim holy city of Mecca, had left 719 people injured.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/24/us-saudi-haj-casualties-idUSKCN0RO0RN20150924

[cleanhippie]

1. This had nothing to do with Religion.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. Well in one sense, it certainly has nothing to

do with a magical sky daddy who watches over us.

[Iggo]

3. And for what?

[struggle4progress]

4. When large crowds are expected, intelligent planning may be very important

... In 1989, in one of the worst tragedies in soccer history, nearly 100 people died in Sheffield, England as crowds pressed into Hillsborough Stadium for a match.

In 2005, a stampede on a bridge across the Tigris River in Baghdad killed more than 960 people when rumors about a coming suicide bomb attack caused panic among pilgrims heading toward a shrine. At the time, it was the greatest single-day casualty toll since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq two years earlier.

And in 2010, a holiday celebration in Phnom Penh, Cambodia left at least 353 trampled to death after a suspension bridge began swaying and thousands of revelers tried to flee ...

How human stampedes, like the one near Mecca, turn deadly
By Rachel Feltman
September 24