On 3 July 1990, 1,426 people were suffocated and trampled to death in a crowd crush or stampede event in a tunnel near Mecca during the Hajj.

The tunnel had been worked on as part of a $15 billion project around Mecca's holy sites started two years earlier by the Saudi government.

[2] While pilgrims were traveling to perform the ritual Stoning of the Devil at 10:00 a.m.[3] the disaster started when a pedestrian bridge railing was bent, causing seven people to fall off a bridge and onto people exiting the tunnel.

[6] Some witnesses claimed they believed a demonstration was occurring; others reported that the power to the tunnel was deactivated.

[7] Saudi officials concluded that crowd hysteria occurring from the falling pilgrims was the cause.