Horror at the Hajj: At least 700 people are crushed to death and hundreds injured in stampede during Muslim pilgrimage in Mecca just two weeks after crane collapse killed 109

Rescue workers treated injured pilgrims and made desperate attempts to resuscitate others after the stampede in Mina, where nearly two million Muslims were taking part in the last major rite of the Hajj. Pictures showed a horrific scene, with scores of bodies - the men dressed in the simple terry cloth garments worn during Hajj - lying amid crushed wheelchairs and water bottles along a sunbaked street (left), while scores of victims were stretchered off to hospital (right) amid the chaos. It was not immediately clear what had caused the stampede. The pilgrims (inset) had converged just outside Mecca to throw pebbles at one of three walls representing Satan, the symbolic 'stoning of the devil' that marks the last day of the event. The tragedy comes just two weeks Preparations for this year's Hajj were marred after a construction crane collapsed at Mecca's Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest site, killing 109 people.