Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has condemned the powerful Saudi Bin Ladin Group over the collapse of the construction crane at Mecca’s Grand Mosque.
An investigative commission has concluded that the company “was in part responsible” for the tragedy, which killed at least 107 people and injured almost 400 during a severe thunderstorm accompanied by violent winds.
The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) remarked that the company, owned by the family of the late Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Ladin, had not “respected the norms of safety” at the site.
The firm’s executives have been forbidden from leaving the kingdom and the company will also be excluded from new public projects, pending the completion of legal action against the company, the SPA said.
The Saudi Bin Ladin construction firm had been working for four years on a 400,000-square-metre (4.3-million-square-feet) enlargement of the Grand Mosque, to accommodate increasing numbers of pilgrims.
That is the equivalent of more than 50 football pitches, and on completion will allow the complex — Islam’s holiest site — to accommodate roughly two million people at once.
After visiting the scene of the tragedy Saturday, Saudi King Salman has vowed to reveal what happened.
It was the worst accident in a decade surrounding the hajj, which begins today and is expected to draw about two million faithful from around the world.
Hundreds of thousands had already converged on the Grand Mosque when the red and white crane, one of several overlooking the site, crashed into a courtyard. Saudis, Iranians, Nigerians, Malaysians, Indonesians and Indians and were among those killed. Officials say the tragedy will have no effect on preparations for the hajj, one of the world’s largest religious events.
An engineer with Saudi Bin Ladin Group has told agencies that what happened was an “act of God” and not the result of a technical fault.
The crane, like many others on the project, had been there for three or four years without any problem.
It was not a technical issue at all... I can only say that what happened was beyond the power of humans. It was an act of God and, to my knowledge, there was no human fault in it at all.
— an engineer with the Saudi Bin Ladin Group
The engineer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the crane was the main one used on work to expand the tawaf, or circumambulation area around the Kaaba — a massive cubed structure at the centre of the mosque that is the focal point of Muslim worship.
It has been installed in a way so as not to affect the hundreds of thousands of worshippers in the area and in an extremely professional way. This is the most difficult place to work in, due to the huge numbers of people in the area.
— an engineer with the Saudi Bin Ladin Group
The crane’s heavy hook, which is able to lift hundreds of tonnes, began swaying and moved the whole crane with it, toppling into the mosque, the engineer explained.
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