At least 66 pilgrims were injured, five of them seriously, when flash floods hit parts of Makkah on Friday, hampering traffic on Umm Al Joud, Al Mansour and Al Haj Streets, Saudi English daily Arab News reported yesterday.

Civil defence officers rescued 47 pilgrims and seven families from the rainwaters. Col. Jameel Arbaeen, director of civil defence in Makkah, said his department had used a helicopter to rescue the families from a flooded area in Umm Al Joud, west of the city.

Forty-seven pilgrims from Egypt were stranded in their bus in the flooded Al Mansour Street. Dr. Aymen Niazi, director of the emergency, safety and ambulance service department, confirmed that 66 pilgrims were injured.

Thirty-seven of them were treated at Ajyad Hospital while 29 others were taken to health centres, he said. The Saudi Red Crescent Society said it had deployed 32 rescue teams to help pilgrims.

"We have not received any call informing us of deaths or serious injuries," Al Nadwah Arabic daily reported quoting a Red Crescent official.

Police diverted buses carrying pilgrims onto safer roads. Because of the rains, street vendors selling umbrellas in Makkah made sizable profits. Limousine drivers also exploited the situation, some charging SR30 instead of the usual SR10 to take pilgrims a short distance.

More than 1.2 million pilgrims have already arrived from abroad for the Haj, which is scheduled to start on January 30. According to Maj. Gen. Abdul Aziz Sajeeni, director general of the Passports Department, more than one million pilgrims have come by air.

The peak of this year's haj pilgrimage, in which more than two million Muslims will retrace the footsteps of Islam's Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), will be on January 31, the Saudi Press Agency said yesterday.

This year's pilgrimage comes amid fears of a possible militant attack in the kingdom, which has been rocked by a series of suicide bombings blamed on Osama bin Laden's Al Qaida network in which more than 50 people were killed.

The Haj also follows the US-led invasion of Iraq, which has attracted Arab militants to Saudi Arabia's northern neighbour and outraged many Muslims around the world.

In recent months Saudi Arabia says it has uncovered arms caches inside Islam's holiest city which Interior Minister Prince Nayef said may have been for use against pilgrims.

The climax of the pilgrimage will see worshippers climb Mount Arafat, the site of the Prophet's last sermon 14 centuries ago. The four-day Eid Al Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) holiday will starts on Sunday, February 1.

Every able-bodied adult Muslim who can afford the trip must perform haj, one of the five pillars of Islam, once in their lifetime.