By Youssef Ayman
The death toll among Egyptian pilgrims who died in the Mina stampede in Saudi Arabia has risen to 126, Minister of Health Ahmed Emad El-Din said on Friday night.
Emad El-Din added that the number of injured among Egyptian pilgrims has reached 14 cases, state-owned MENA news agency reported.
The health minister said, in a statement to MENA, that he has received a second official statement from the Saudi authorities on the number of Egyptian victims in the incident.
He noted that 91 of the deceased had been reported by the official Egyptian pilgrimage mission, while 27 others had their data obtained by the Saudi authorities, and another eight deaths were counted by the Egyptian consulate in Saudi Arabia.
Emad El-Din said that names of the missing pilgrims will be posted on the website of the Ministry of Religious Endowments, as well as the names of those who died.
About 747 pilgrims in total were reported dead due to the stampede that occurred at the end of the Hajj pilgrimage, while 863 were reported injured on the first day of Eid Al-Adha on 24 September. Pilgrims from Iran constituted the largest number of deaths and injuries, followed by those of Egypt.
The stampede resulted in a reshuffle of the Saudi cabinet upon a formal request by Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz. The new cabinet saw their first official meeting after the new formation on 30 September.
