More than 700 killed in hajj stampede in Saudi Arabia

GLEN ELLYN, Ill. (WLS) -- There is worldwide mourning after a tragic stampede at the annual hajj pilgrimage killed 717 people at Mina, one of the holiest sites in Islam, in Saudi Arrabia.

Mina is where a symbolic devil stoning takes place towards the end of the hajj, before pilgrims continue on to Mecca. The stampede occurred on Eid al-Adah, a festival that highlights the need for the faithful to submit to God.

Streets around Islam's holiest sites were littered with the bodies of the dead and injured Thursday morning, trampled as two massive groups of pilgrims from different directions converged near the spot where they're supposed to carry out the symbolic devil-stoning. The tragedy was on the minds of the faithful at the mosque in Glen Ellyn

"It is certainly upsetting, just because you know your fellow brothers and sisters are coming in harm's way while they are performing something that is one of the pillars of Islam," said Dr. Iftekhar Ahmad.

Born in Oak Brook, Ahmad says most of his religious brethren have not taken on the hajj, the once-in-a-lifetime trip to Mecca and Mina that all able-bodied Muslims are supposed to make, but they will, knowing how easily it can become dangerous.

"Certainly it is like an out-of-body experience, it is such a high spiritual experience," Ahmad said. "You want to get to a place for instance that everybody else is going and sometimes that can cause stampedes and things like that to happen."

The stampede is the second disaster during this year's hajj season, raising questions about Saudi security measures for the 2 million Muslims taking part. A crane collapse in Mecca nearly two weeks ago left 111 people dead. Still, the Glen Ellyn imam reminds us what it's really about.

"Millions of people are gathering from different parts of the world, different denominations, ethnicities, groups, colors but all for the unity of god they all gathered there for the oneness of Islam," Imam Shamshad of Baet-ul-Jaamay mosque said.

Saudi officials say more than 800 people were injured, including two Americans according to the State Department. Nearly all the injured were in an area where measures have been put in place over the years to try to alleviate the pressure of pilgrims converging for the stoning ritual.