All the Haj pilgrims from the State who were on the pilgrimage in Mecca are safe. An eyewitness pilgrim from the State capital Fareed Alam who is on pilgrimage with his wife and son told The Pioneer that the crane crashed after couple of hours of rain and storm stopped.
He further said, "We were very near to the troubled spot but luckily we did not suffer any harm and are safe. Though, after the stampede that occurred after the accident we lost way to our staying place, but managed to reach the return safely at it till dawn."
"We took over five hours in reaching out our place of stay as after we lost way we found it real difficult to find way as language became a problem," he added.
Meanwhile, the State Haj Committee has confirmed that all the pilgrims from the State are safe and that it is constant touch with all the Khadim ul Hujjaj (volunteers) and the pilgrims from the State.
Another pilgrim from the city Syed Shahid Ali said that it was Friday and most of the pilgrims from Bhopal who reached here on Thursday by the last flight had either performed Umrah or were finishing the Umrah rites when first the winds and sand storm started blowing at very fast pace.
The sand storm forced all the pilgrims to stay at the place wherever they were as the storm was at such a pace that even the cars parked or moving on roads were seen blowing away with the storm. In the meanwhile, heavy rains also started, he added.
He said after the sand storm and rains stopped and people started moving out from the shelters a loud sound was heard.
later it was told to us that a crane has crashed and many people have died.