More than one million pilgrims arrived in Saudi Arabia

The Saudi Arabian ministry of al-Haj said that more than 1.1 million pilgrims arrived in Saudi Arabia by Saturday evening. Other numbers are expected to also arrive in order to perform al-Haj rituals which will start on Friday.

The Saudi papers said that the city of Mecca witnessed an intensive flow of pilgrims in recent hours, while thousands of worshippers performed Friday's prayers on Saturday inside al-Haram mosque in Mecca and its surrounding in the first days of Zee al-Hijja month.

In recent hours Mecca witnessed a heavy rainfall, and civil defense helicopters interfered to rescue several families whose houses were hit by water, especially in Um al-Joud area to the west of the city. The civil defense forces interfered to rescue 47 Egyptian pilgrims who were in a bus besieged by water in one of Mecca streets.

Worthy mentioning that 12 persons were killed and other wounded in November 2003 because of unprecedented heavy rainfall in Mecca.