87 dead in Mecca mosque crane fall
At least 87 people have died after a crane collapsed on the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, the Saudi Arabian government has said.
More than 180 people were injured in the accident, the country's civil defence authority said on Twitter.
Images from the scene showed part of a huge red crane crashed through the mosque's roof. The cause of the collapse is not known.
Mecca is currently preparing for the annual Muslim Hajj pilgrimage.
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to arrive in the Saudi city from all over the world later this month.
Reports suggested the crane fell following high winds and rain. The Arabian peninsula has been has been hit by strong sand storms over the past week.
A video posted on YouTube, which could not be independently verified, appeared to record the moment the crane fell, with a loud crash heard in the background followed by panic and shouting.
Images circulating on Twitter appeared to show numerous bodies and blood on the floor of the mosque.
Saudi authorities began a major expansion of the site last year to increase the area of the mosque by 400,000 square metres (4.3 million square feet), to allow it to accommodate up to 2.2 million people at once.
The crane that collapsed on Friday was one of a number dotted around the site as part of the construction project.
The mosque is Islam's most sacred site and the destination for millions of Muslims undertaking the Hajj pilgrimage every year.
At the heart of the mosque is the Kaaba, a black cube-shaped building which Muslims all over the world face when they pray.
Islam requires that every Muslim capable of doing so performs a pilgrimage to the site at least once in their lifetime. Once at the mosque, pilgrims perform "tawaf" - walking seven times around the Kaaba in a counter-clockwise direction.
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Isn't it obvious why they crane collapsed? Someone walked around the Kaaba clockwise.
Seriously though, when will events like this finallylead people to the conclusion that there are/is no god(s). Imagine - you're required towalk hundreds of miles to reach a "holy place", only to walk around in circles and go home, and you get squashed by a crane. Sorry, but that is just as silly as pretending to eat a dead guys flesh and drink his blood every week ... although not nearly as gruesome.
I'm sorry to hear this-- and hope it was not an act of terror!
Terrible tragedy, though it sounds as if it would have been much worse if it would have happened later this month during the Muslim Holiday.
I would like to propose a question to you Hal; but, I hope you would consider it in a convivial manner.
Do you consider anything to be spiritual, or perhaps more to the point, sacred?
Awesome and thank you for your answer. I assume that..."it's still just a dumb ball of nuclear chaos, and it doesn't care whether we revere it or rail against it."...would also be your response if I asked you if you felt there was anything sacred about our planet. Would that be true? I am NOT attempting to catch you up into anything, I am truly curious (been reading this guy lately , and got me thinking).
Yeah, ok; that's what I was getting at and thanks.
Some maintain that just as Earth is a living organism, the solar system is as well.
According to Hal, no one who sincerely believes in God should ever have anything bad happen to them, otherwise it stands as proof that there is no God. Since appx 90% of the people in the world believe in God, if anything bad happens to one of those 5+ billion people, then God does not exist. Sounds pretty dang silly, doesn't it ?
True dat.
I think it was a "sign" - one the "believers" would neither recognize nor care about.