Support NeoGAF

[RustyNails]

Breaking on AlJ.

At least 62 people were killed when a crane crashed in Mecca's Grand Mosque on Friday, Saudi Arabia's civil defence authority said on its Twitter account.

It said nearly 30 people were injured as well. The Muslim annual Haj pilgrimage is due later this month.

Al Jazeera's Hasan Patel, reporting from Mecca, said witnesses told him that a crane fell on the third floor of the Grand Mosque around 5.45pm.

Our correspondent said the mosque was packed, even though the incident happened shortly before the 6.30pm Friday prayer.

"Dozens of ambulances are heading to the site. The authorities closed off the area shortly afterwards," he said.

"This whole place is already a construction site. What made it worse is that around 5.30pm there was severe rain," he said.

 

[backflip10019]

Damn, that's awful. RIP.

 

[Infinite]

Oh no

 

[wildfire]

Well hopefully they adapt and put in better measures to make the construction areas safer. Condolences to those who lost a loved one.

 

[Walpurgis]

I hope their relatives take solace in the fact that these people died in the best place for a Muslim.

 

[Red Hood]

inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji3oun.

 

[weemaster]

That is horrible... Looking at my twitter feed deaths are up to 65 and 80 people injured.

 

[Mr. Giggles]

Ouch.

RIP

 

[onepiecefan]

Pictures look really bad, R.I.P.

 

[Lamel]

The grand mosque is so packed, that is just awful.

 

[Gorger]

RIP to all the families and victims.

Embrace yourselves for some really nasty comments from right-wingers since it happened on September 11. I can see it already.

 

[AlexMogil]

Oh no it fell on pilgrims? Oh wow, that's just awful. Oh wow.

 

[TheLostBigBoss]

Jesus fuck that's horrible

 

[Ingeniero]

Awful news

 

[xxracerxx]

How awful.

 

[massoluk]

That's terrible. Condolences to people affected.

 

[DXB-KNIGHT]

The area was hit with heavy rain.

 

[Kolx]

RIP

 

[Mesousa]

Suspicious day for this to happen.

 

[params7]

Apparently the crane belonged to Binladin's family construction group:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Binladin_Group

 

[Lulubop]

Suspicious day for this to happen.

Stop

 

[Slacker]

Is it safe to assume negligence here? How can hundreds or people be close enough to construction work for this to happen?

 

[Mr. Giggles]

Suspicious day for this to happen.

C'mon man.

 

[Slacker]

Suspicious day for this to happen.

Indeed. Also, a semi truck turned over on a highway here in DFW this morning. COINCIDENCE? I DON'T THINK SO.

 

[TheSpoiler]

Like clockwork, some idiot has to make a joke about 9/11 and Middle Eastern people in anything remotely (to what they think is) related to the latter.

 

[Mudcrab]

Suspicious day for this to happen.

Are you for real?

 

[Ikael]

RIP to the families and victims, what horrible tragedy

Also, one might thing that construction workers at the Mecca might be treated better and with more attetion towards their safety than in other gulf states since they are afterall in a holy place, but I guess that this is not the case :/

 

[Mesousa]

Are you for real?

I just mean it seems weird this would happen on today of all days. I am not a conspiracy theorist, just noticing it and the date.

 

[ZarKryn7]

May Allah accept their Hajj and grant them to jannah.

 

[Neuromancer]

I just mean it seems weird this would happen on today of all days. I am not a conspiracy theorist, just noticing it and the date.

This had a better chance of happening on this day than anyone has of winning the lottery.

 

[FStop7]

I just mean it seems weird this would happen on today of all days. I am not a conspiracy theorist, just noticing it and the date.

You just said it was suspicious.

 

[Valhelm]

Unlucky date

 

[Mesousa]

May Allah accept their Hajj and grant them to jannah.

agreed.

 

[FriedConsole]

Is it safe to assume negligence here? How can hundreds or people be close enough to construction work for this to happen?

Ever been to a urban center? There are giant cranes on skyscapers happening all the time and pedestrians are provided plywood cover.

 

[TheRealTalker]

heard about this

the city was getting hammered with weather this week.... Sandstorm, and lots of rain

R.I.P

 

[Az]

Heard there were pretty bad sandstorms going around.

RIP.

 

[Sai-kun]

Horrible. RIP.

 

[JHoNNy1OoO]

Video of the event.

Nothing graphic. You see the crane falling on the building and then you see video of someone inside as the crane breaks through the ceiling while shuffling out of the building. The sound of it crashing through is scary as hell.

 

[TheRealTalker]

Picture of the collapsed Crane

hammering winds likely tipped it over

 

[Bremsstrahlung]

inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji3oun.

Out of curiosity, are those cranes being used to build anything in particular? I remember seeing them when I went a few years back but IIRC there weren't any construction work going on at the time.

 

[Brazil]

Fuck :/

May they rest in peace. What a tragedy.

 

[NoFaceNico]

Suspicious day for this to happen.

Don't tell Fox news. The ultra right wing would have a field day with this.

 

[LiK]

87 confirmed dead now according to AP.

 

[TheRealTalker]

Out of curiosity, are those cranes being used to build anything in particular? I remember seeing them when I went a few years back but IIRC there weren't any construction work going on at the time.

For the Mataf Expansion project

This crane was on the outside though... a massive mobile Crane unit to real in supplies

87 confirmed dead now according to AP.

yeah the Saudi government raised it up to 87

 

[phaonaut]

^ Whoa thats massive, can't believe how small the city around it looks.

 

[_Nemo]

Dying in the Haram, while travelling for Hajj, on the day of Friday. What an amazing way to go MashaAllah.

 

[Chozolore]

Dying in the Haram, while travelling for Hajj, on the day of Friday. What an amazing way to go MashaAllah.

Hmmm, death cult confirmed.


This is nothing but tragic.

 

[Bremsstrahlung]

For the Mataf Expansion project




This crane was on the outside though... a massive mobile Crane unit to real in supplies



yeah the Saudi government raised it up to 87

Y'know, I used to think that all these cranes and construction work weren't really necessary and would rather they just leave the mosque as it was. To be honest, that was my first thought when I read the article, too. But I realize that the mosque tends to get really packed as it is, and an expansion would really benefit a lot of these Hajj-goers.

So I guess what I'm saying is that it's a really sad situation that a project that's supposed to help them ends up killing them instead.

 

[TimorousPanda]

Absolutely tragic.

 

[Christine]

Picture of the collapsed Crane

hammering winds likely tipped it over

That's one hell of a picture. That is a thing that people built purposely to be big and heavy and stable and NOT tip over, so it can lift huge things. Just shows how small we really are in comparison to forces that routinely move through our world. All we can do in response to tragedy like this is to continue to work on making our tools and building safer, mourn loss, and do our best to assuage the grief of those who have lost.