RIYADH, Jan 15: Saudi Arabia has started pulling down a disaster-prone bridge near the holy city of Makkah days after more than 360 pilgrims were crushed to death there in the worst disaster to hit the Haj in 16 years. “The first stage of the projected overhaul of Jamarat bridge in Mena began on Saturday and will be completed and ready for next year’s Haj,” said Osama al-Bar, who heads a government centre that helps organise the annual five-day pilgrimage.

“Jamarat bridge has become the most sensitive area in Haj.”

Pilgrims were killed as they jostled to perform a stoning ritual at the bridge on Thursday, the last day of this year’s Haj when more than two million Muslims converge on Saudi Arabia.

In 2004, about 250 pilgrims were crushed to death at Jamarat Bridge. A decade earlier, 270 were killed in a similar stampede. Thursday’s death toll was the highest since 1,426 people were killed in a stampede in a tunnel in Makkah in 1990.

The authorities had already said they would replace the Jamarat Bridge with an elaborate system of entrances and exits, including a subway, which will cost 4.2 billion riyals ($1.12 billion). The project will take three years to complete.

The first stage, which will be ready for the next Haj, involves a two-storey bridge and an underground emergency exit for pilgrims and ambulances.—Reuters