More than 700 dead, 800 injured in Hajj stampede

At least 700 people were killed and more than 800 injured in a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage outside the holy city of Mecca on Thursday, Saudi Arabian officials said.

The country's civil defense directorate said the disaster occurred after a "sudden rise" in the number of pilgrims traveling a major road leading to the site of a stone-throwing ritual. It "resulted in a stampede among the pilgrims and the collapse of a large number of them," government officials said.

The annual Hajj pilgrimage — which began Tuesday — attracts around 2 million Muslims to Mecca.

This isn't the first time a stampede has caused deaths during the Hajj. In 2006, over 360 people were killed. Crushes and stampedes killed 244 people in 2004, 35 in 2001, 180 in 1998, and 270 in 1994. The worst incident was in 1990, when a stampede in an overcrowded pedestrian tunnel leading to Mecca's holy sites caused the deaths of 1,426 people.

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