Hundreds died due to the heat during the pilgrimage to Mecca in recent days, and Egypt decides to sanction and report 16 tourist agencies for "fraud" for having illegally sent many pilgrims to Saudi Arabia.

Prime Minister Mustafa Madbuli "has ordered to withdraw the licenses of these companies, to bring those responsible before justice and to impose a fine on them to allocate the proceeds to compensate the families of the pilgrims who died through their fault", is written in a note of the Cairo government.

The toll has risen to at least 900 victims and many relatives of pilgrims missing during the hajj, which this year was attended by around 1.8 million people, most of them from abroad, are looking for their loved ones. Facebook and other social networks were flooded with photos of missing people and requests for information.

In addition to the Egyptian deaths, 60 Jordanian deaths were reported by Arab diplomats. Deaths have also been confirmed in Indonesia, Iran, Senegal, Tunisia and Iraqi Kurdistan. An Asian diplomat reported "68 deaths" among Indian pilgrims.

The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam and every Muslim who can afford it must perform it at least once in his life. The dates of the hajj are set according to the Muslim calendar, which is based on lunar cycles, and in recent years the rituals have taken place in scorching temperatures. This pilgrimage is increasingly suffering the effects of climate change, warned a Saudi study published in May, which found that temperatures at the sites where the rituals take place are rising by 0.4 degrees Celsius every ten years.

Temperatures this year have reached 51.8 degrees Celsius.

Every year, tens of thousands of pilgrims attempt to perform the hajj via irregular routes, unable to afford the often expensive official permits.

(Unioneonline/D)

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