Crane collapse at Mecca’s Grand Mosque kills at least 87

A towering construction crane collapsed Friday during a violent storm in Saudi Arabia’s city of Mecca, Islam’s holiest site, crashing onto the Grand Mosque and killing at least 87 people ahead of the start of the annual hajj pilgrimage later this month.

Videos and photos posted by social media users showed a grisly scene, with police and onlookers attending to bloodied bodies on the polished mosque floors.

The Grand Mosque and the cube-shaped Kaaba within it draw Muslims of all types from around the world throughout the year, though numbers increase significantly in the run-up to the hajj. Performing the pilgrimage once during one’s lifetime is a duty for all able-bodied Muslims.

Several cranes surround the mosque to support an ongoing expansion and other construction work that has transformed the area around the sanctuary. Steep hills and low-rise traditional buildings that once surrounded the mosque have in recent years given way to shopping malls and luxury hotels – among them the world’s third-tallest building.

Saudi Arabia’s civil defense authority provided a series of rising casualty numbers on its official Twitter account. As of late Friday, it said those wounded in the disaster numbered 184.

Pan-satellite Al-Jazeera Television broadcast footage from inside the mosque compound said to be from the aftermath of the accident, showing the floor strewn with rubble and what appear to be pools of blood.

Another video, on a Twitter posting, captured the apparent moment of the crane’s collapse during heavy winds, with a loud boom, screams and confusion.

Sandstorms had darkened Mecca’s skies on Thursday.

This story was originally published September 11, 2015 at 11:01 AM with the headline "Crane collapse at Mecca’s Grand Mosque kills at least 87."