Jamarat Bridge Hajj Crowd Incident — Incident Report
Incident Case Study · Hajj Crowd Incident

Jamarat BridgeHajj Crowd Incident

A structured incident summary of the 9 April 1998 Jamarat Bridge Hajj crowd incident in Mina, Saudi Arabia, with reported figures, source material, conflicting accounts and details that remain unverified.

Date9 Apr 1998
LocationMina, Saudi Arabia
Fatalities118–180
Injuries180–250+
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Incident Overview

What happened

Date: User supplied 1998-01-01, but the verified incident date found in sources is 9 April 1998. Multiple sources place the Jamarat Bridge Hajj crowd incident on 9 April 1998 / 12 Dhu al-Hijjah 1418, the last day of the Hajj stoning ritual. (Facebook)

Location: Jamarat / Jamaraat Bridge, Mina, near Mecca / Makkah, Saudi Arabia. LA Times/AP describes the chaos as occurring in Mina, about three miles from Mecca, during the “stoning the devil” ritual. (Los Angeles Times)

Incident name: Jamarat Bridge Hajj crowd incident / 1998 Hajj stampede.

During the Hajj stoning ritual, pilgrims surged toward the Jamarat area. Contemporary AP reporting via the Los Angeles Times says security forces were overwhelmed and victims were trampled or fell during the chaos in Mina. (Los Angeles Times)

Reported Impact

Fatalities and injuries

Reported fatalities: Conflicting. Official death toll reported as 118; LA Times/AP says Saudi doctors in Mecca and Mina put the death toll at 180. Reuters later summarised the April 1998 toll as 119. (Los Angeles Times)

Reported injuries: Conflicting. Several later summaries report 180 injured, while LA Times/AP reported Saudi doctors saying more than 250 injured. (TheCable)

⚠️ Evidence noteThe supported date is 9 April 1998. The casualty figures are not stable across sources and should be recorded as conflicting.
Review conflicts →

Key Figures

Reported headline data

0
Official fatalities reported
119/180
Conflicting death figures
180–250+
Conflicting injury reports
0
Sources listed

Chronology

Incident timeline

12 Dhu al-Hijjah 1418 / 9 April 1998
Multiple sources place the incident on the last day of the Hajj stoning ritual, not on the user-supplied date of 1 January 1998.
Crowd surge at Jamarat
Pilgrims surged toward the Jamarat area during the “stoning the devil” ritual. AP reporting via Los Angeles Times says security forces were overwhelmed.
Crushing, trampling and falls reported
Sources describe victims being crushed, trampled, or falling during the chaos in Mina. A full medical breakdown was not verified in the source set.
Later source summaries
Later news, academic and crowd-safety summaries repeat the incident as part of the history of Jamarat Bridge crowd disasters.

Operational Themes

Key crowd-safety issues

🌊
Crowd surge
The incident is consistently framed around a surge or crushing crowd movement during a high-density ritual flow.
🌉
Bridge bottleneck
Retrospective sources identify Jamarat Bridge as a major bottleneck within the stoning ritual route.
🧭
Flow control pressure
Contemporary reporting says security forces were overwhelmed as pilgrims moved toward the ritual area.
⚠️
Unsettled casualty data
Fatality and injury figures vary between official, medical and later summary sources.
⚠️ Research handlingUse 118 as the official reported fatality count, but retain 119 and 180 as source conflicts. Injury reporting should remain a range, not a single neat number.

Disputed Details

Conflicting information

The following points should be retained as disputed unless stronger primary material is later found.

Disputed Detail
Incident date.

The record contains conflicting accounts, so this should not be treated as settled fact.

Source 1

User supplied date: 1998-01-01.

Source 2

LA Times/AP, Haramain Archives indexed content, academic review summaries and later chronologies identify the incident as 9 April 1998.

1998-01-01 is not verified for this incident. The supported date is 9 April 1998. (Los Angeles Times)

Disputed Detail
Fatality count.

The record contains conflicting accounts, so this should not be treated as settled fact.

Source 1

LA Times/AP reports the official death toll was 118.

Source 2

LA Times/AP also reports Saudi doctors said 180 people died.

Source 3

Reuters later lists 119 pilgrims crushed to death in April 1998.

Best-supported official figure is 118 fatalities, but 119 and 180 appear in credible sources and should be retained as conflicts. (Los Angeles Times)

Disputed Detail
Injury count.

The record contains conflicting accounts, so this should not be treated as settled fact.

Source 1

Academic and retrospective sources state 180 injured.

Source 2

LA Times/AP says Saudi doctors reported more than 250 injured.

Injury total is not settled. Record as 180 injured in several summaries; more than 250 injured according to Saudi doctors quoted by AP/LA Times. (Turkish Journal of Emergency Medicine)

Not Verified

Unverified details

These details were not verified in the supplied source file.

Not Verified
The user-provided date 1998-01-01.
Not Verified
Complete official Saudi casualty list.
Not Verified
Full nationality breakdown of all fatalities.
Not Verified
Exact mechanism for the crowd collapse beyond crowd surge/overwhelming congestion at the stoning ritual.
Not Verified
Whether all deaths were by crushing, trampling, falls, asphyxia, or a combination; sources report trampling/crushing/falling but do not provide a full medical breakdown.
Not Verified
The original BBC News page “Saudis identifying nationalities of 118 dead pilgrims” was identified through citations and secondary references, but I could not directly open and verify the original BBC URL in this browsing session.

Source Material

References

The cards below list the news, magazine, website, open-source and academic references recorded in the source document.

01
AP / Los Angeles Times · News Articles
Death Toll in Hajj Stampede Near Mecca Rises to 180
11 April 1998
Reports that pilgrims surging forward for the “stoning the devil” ritual overwhelmed security forces. States victims were trampled or fell to their deaths in Mina, about three miles from Mecca. Gives an official death toll of 118, while Saudi doctors said 180 died and more than 250 were injured.
Visit Source →
02
Reuters · News Articles
Timeline: Some of the world's worst stampedes
22 February 2011
Reuters timeline lists April 1998 as a Hajj stampede in Saudi Arabia in which 119 Muslim pilgrims were crushed to death. This conflicts slightly with the official 118 figure in other sources.
Visit Source →
03
The Guardian · News Articles
Dozens killed in pilgrims’ stampede
6 March 2001
Report on the 2001 Hajj stampede that provides retrospective context. It states that Jamarat Bridge had seen two similar previous stampedes, including 1998, when at least 118 people were killed, and 1994, when 270 pilgrims died.
Visit Source →
04
Vanity Fair · Magazine Articles
The 10-Minute Mecca Stampede That Made History
7 February 2018
Long-form retrospective on Hajj crowd disasters, mainly focused on 2015. It states that the Jamarat Bridge had become a bottleneck and that in 1998, 118 pilgrims were crushed to death there, followed by further fatalities in 2001, 2003 and 2004.
Visit Source →
05
Come and See · Website Articles
People killed during Hajj in Mecca
2001 page; site copyright 2011
Reposts/archives BBC-style reporting on the 2001 Hajj stampede and includes background stating that in 1998, at least 118 people died and more than 180 were injured during the third and last day of the stoning ceremony.
Visit Source →
06
TheCable · Website Articles
Holding Saudi Arabia accountable for hajj tragedies
25 September 2015
Commentary article after the 2015 Hajj disaster. In its chronology, it states that on 9 April 1998, at least 118 pilgrims were trampled to death and 180 injured on the Jamaraat Bridge. Commentary/opinion source; not used as primary evidence.
⚠️ Weak or partly unverified source; stronger sources used where available.
Visit Source →
07
Working With Crowds · Website Articles
Working With Crowds crowd disasters by year
Not verified
Crowd-disaster index entry gives the lead wording: Saudi authorities were continuing efforts to identify the nationalities of the 118 Muslims who died in a stampede on the last day of the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. This appears to trace to the BBC article “Saudis identifying nationalities of 118 dead pilgrims.”
⚠️ Weak or partly unverified source; stronger sources used where available.
Visit Source →
08
Haramain Archives / Facebook · Website Articles
Hajj 1998 Stampede Date: 12 Dhu al Hijjah 1418 H / 9 April 1998
Not fully verified from opened page
Publicly indexed post states that in Dhu al-Hijjah 1418 / 1998, a stampede at the Stoning of the Devil ritual on Jamarat Bridge killed 118 pilgrims and injured 180. Social-media/open-source pointer only.
⚠️ Weak or partly unverified source; stronger sources used where available.
Visit Source →
09
Haramain Archives / Facebook · Social Media Posts / Open Source
Hajj 1998 Stampede video/post
Not verified
Publicly indexed Facebook content describes the 1998 Hajj Jamarat Bridge stampede as occurring on 9 April 1998 and causing 118 deaths and 180 injuries. Included as a weak open-source pointer, not primary evidence.
⚠️ Weak or partly unverified source; stronger sources used where available.
Visit Source →
10
Turkish Journal of Emergency Medicine · Academic Papers
Health response to Hajj mass gathering from emergency perspective, narrative review
2016
Academic review table lists “A stampede at Jamarat Bridge” on 9 April 1998, with 118 deaths and 180 injured. Its references cite the BBC News item “Saudis identifying nationalities of 118 dead pilgrims.”
Visit Source →
11
eScholarship · Academic Papers
Epidemiology of Hajj Pilgrimage Mortality
2019
Broader academic work on Hajj mortality and health risks. It is not a direct incident account of the 1998 crush, but supports the broader context of Hajj mortality, mass gathering risk, and Saudi health planning.
⚠️ Weak or partly unverified source; stronger sources used where available.
Visit Source →

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