Riyadh: Three men, planning to perform Haj, were killed in a thunder storm in Makkah on Tuesday night.
The men, who included a Saudi and two Pakistanis, were struck by thunderstorms following heavy rain.
The incident tool place on top of Al Nour Mountain, in which the Cave of Hira, where the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) is said to have worshipped God before experiencing revelations, is located. The three were visiting the historical spot, before embarking on a Haj pilgrimage a few days later.
Meanwhile, Prince Khalid Al Faisal, the governor of the Makkah region and chairman of the Central Hajj Committee, has emphasised that the Saudi government has made every effort to deal with the heavy rains.
The weather was so bad that it stopped traffic in several streets in the holy city, where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from around the world have converged.
Traffic came to a standstill and many traffic accidents were reported across the city.
The governor, during a visit to the pilgrims’ terminal at the King Abdul Aziz Airport in Jeddah on Tuesday, announced that 1.5 million pilgrims had already arrived in the city.
“He who tours the pilgrims’ terminals those days will think that he is in an international airport. These are great efforts exerted by those working in these terminals. You have seen how pilgrims are treated and served,” the governor said.
Abdullah Rehaimi, the president of Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation, said the authorities have developed a plan, to ease flight traffic at both arrival and departure times.
In a statement, he pointed out that authorities are hoping to make use of the arrival phase which is 34 days, and began on the first of Dhul Qaida (month 11 in the Hijri calendar) and ends on Dhul Hijja 4 (month 12 of the Hijri calendar), and the departure phase, starting on Dhul Hijja 14 and ending on Muharram 15.
The pilgrims’ terminal complex in the airport has capacity for 3,800 passengers per hour.
