Hostel collapse toll rises to 76

MECCA -- The death toll from the collapse of a Muslim pilgrims' hostel here days before the annual haj pilgrimage rose to least 76, a Saudi Interior Ministry official said yesterday.

Officials said earlier that 62 had been injured in the collapse of the building on Thursday in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, where more than a million pilgrims have gathered.

Saudi authorities had said at least 53 people were killed in the collapse, which took place during the midday bustle on a narrow market street. The building was at least six stories high and 30 years old.

The tragedy occurred days before tomorrow's start of the five-day haj, when 2.5 million Muslims cram into the mountain city where Islam was born.

Deadly stampedes, attacks by Islamist militants, or the possibility that a dangerous virus could spread through the crowds are three concerns worrying the Saudi organizers of this year's pilgrimage.

But pilgrims gathering yesterday at the Grand Mosque in Mecca said they were elated to be able to do haj, a duty for every able-bodied Muslim at least once in a lifetime.

''If anything is going to happen to us, it is God's will -- whether it's bird flu, a building collapsing, or anything else. I didn't even know about the hostel," said Abdel-Hakim, a 23-year-old Nigerian.

The haj has been marred by deaths in recent years. About 250 pilgrims died in a stampede in 2004 during the stoning of three stone pillars that symbolize the devil.

Health specialists warn that the huge crowds could create the conditions in which a pandemic strain of bird flu emerges.