New Zealand citizen dies during hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia

A New Zealand citizen has died while attending hajj in Saudi Arabia.

A Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson said in a statement that consular assistance was being provided to the person’s family.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has also confirmed an Australian citizen is among the deceased.

Nearly two million Muslim pilgrims have finished hajj this week at the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

It is a requirement for Muslims to take part in hajj one time in their life if they are physically and financially capable as it is considered one of the pillars of Islam.

Kiwi cross-code sports legend Sonny Bill Williams was one of the two million who made the pilgrimage.

He posted a photo of himself at Mecca on his social media.

Hundreds of people died during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage as the faithful faced intense high temperatures at Islamic holy sites in the desert kingdom, officials said this week as people tried to claim their loved ones’ bodies.

Saudi Arabia has not commented on the death toll amid the heat during the pilgrimage, required of every able Muslim once in their life, nor offered any causes for those who died. However, hundreds of people had lined up at the Emergency Complex in Al-Muaisem neighbourhood in Mecca, trying to get information about their missing family members.

One list circulating online suggested at least 550 people died during the five-day Hajj. A medic who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity to discuss information not released publicly by the government said that the names listed appeared genuine. That medic and another official who also spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason said they believed at least 600 bodies were at the facility.

Deaths are not uncommon at the Hajj, which has seen at times more than two million people travel to Saudi Arabia. There have also been stampedes and epidemics throughout the pilgrimage’s history.

Each year, the Hajj draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from low-income nations, “many of whom have had little, if any, pre-Hajj health care”, according to an article in the April edition of the Journal of Infection and Public Health. Communicable illnesses can spread among the gathered masses, many of whom save their entire lives for the pilgrimage and who can be elderly with pre-existing health conditions, it said.

However, the number of dead this year suggests something caused the fatalities to swell. Already, several countries have said some of their pilgrims died because of the heat that swept across the holy sites at Mecca, including Jordan and Tunisia.

- Additional reporting by AP.