35 foreigners dead in Saudi bus crash

RIYADH: Thirty-five foreigners were killed and four others injured when a bus collided with another heavy vehicle near the Muslim holy city of Madina, Saudi state media said on Thursday.

The accident on Wednesday evening involved a collision between “a private chartered bus... with a heavy vehicle” near the western city, a spokesman for Madina police said, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

Those involved were Arab and Asian pilgrims travelling from Madina to Makkah, according to local media, which carried pictures of the bus engulfed in flames and with its windows blown out. The injured have been transferred to Al-Hamna Hospital, SPA added. Authorities have launched an investigation. The Okaz newspaper said that the victims were expatriates who lived in the kingdom and who were performing the umrah — the lesser pilgrimage to the Muslim holy places, which can be undertaken year round. This year some 2.5 million faithful travelled to Saudi Arabia from across the world in August to take part in the annual hajj pilgrimage — one of the five pillars of Islam. The hajj and the umrah centre on Makkah and its surrounding hills and valleys, in the west of the kingdom, but the itinerary also often takes in the other holy city of Madina. Last year, a high-speed train line was opened linking Makkah and Medina in just two and a half hours, halving the previous travel time.