Three Indonesians were among 717 pilgrims killed in the deadly haj stampede in Mina, Saudi Arabia, the government said.

'€œWe'€™re still closely monitoring the situation based on information from our field staff who are currently combing hospitals to find out the fate of our citizens,'€ said Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi while accompanying Vice President Jusuf Kalla on his trip to New York.

The stampede '€” the worst disaster to strike the annual haj pilgrimage in 25 years '€” also injured 863 others.

Two of the three fatalities were identified as Hamid Atuwi from Surabaya and Saiyah from Batam, while the identity of another victim had yet to be confirmed by the Indonesian haj committee in Saudi Arabia.

'€œAnother person is critically injured and that person is being treated at Annur Hospital in Mecca,'€  Foreign Ministry director for the protection of Indonesian nationals and entities abroad Lalu Muhammad Iqbal said on Thursday night.

Indonesian Religious Affairs Ministry spokesman Rosyidin explained that the Mina tragedy took place at a crossroads on Street 204. The ministry did not expect Indonesian casualties as the street was not the scheduled path for Indonesian pilgrims on their way to perform the jumrah throwing ritual in Mina. Indonesians instead go through a tunnel to reach the throwing ritual site.

'€œThe road that is usually taken by Indonesia pilgrims is King Fahd Street, which is located next to Street 204 ,'€ Rosyidin said.

He added that the Indonesian haj committee in Saudi Arabia had prepared for such a incident by prohibiting Indonesia pilgrims from performing the throwing ritual between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. on Thursday, and between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

However, some Indonesians, including the victims, could have gone to the site outside of the set schedules and taken a different path on account of the high number of Indonesian pilgrims this year, which amounted to 168,000.

'€œThe probability is slim that the number of Indonesian casualties will increase,'€ Rosyidin said.

The Religious Affairs Ministry has set up a hotline for information regarding the current situation in Mina at +966543603154.

Thursday'€™s disaster was the worst to befall the pilgrimage since July 1990, when 1,426 pilgrims were crushed to death in a tunnel near Mecca. Both stampedes occurred on Idul Adha (the Islamic Day of Sacrifice), Islam'€™s most important feast and the day of the stoning ritual.

Photographs published on the Twitter feed of the Saudi civil defense on Thursday showed pilgrims lying on stretchers while emergency workers in high-visibility jackets lifted them into an ambulance.

The haj, the world'€™s largest annual gathering of people, has been the scene of numerous deadly stampedes, fires and riots in the past, but their frequency was greatly reduced in recent years as the government spent billions of dollars upgrading and expanding haj infrastructure and crowd control technology.

Safety during haj is a politically sensitive issue for the kingdom'€™s ruling Al Saud dynasty, which presents itself internationally as the guardian of Islam and custodian of its holiest places in Mecca and Medina.

Unverified video posted on Twitter showed bodies, clad in the white towelling of those undertaking haj, lying on the ground by the side of the road, surrounded by debris, as pilgrims and rescue workers attempted to revive them.

Street 204, where the stampede occurred, is one of the two main arteries leading through the camp at Mina to Jamarat, the site where pilgrims ritually stone the devil by hurling pebbles at three large pillars. In 2006, at least 346 pilgrims died in a stampede at Jamarat.

Reuters reporters in another part of Mina said they could hear police and ambulance sirens, but that roads leading to the site of the disaster had been blocked.

'€œWork is underway to separate large groups of people and direct pilgrims to alternative routes,'€ the Saudi Civil Defense said on its Twitter account.

It said more than 220 ambulances and 4,000 rescue workers had been sent to the stampede'€™s location to help the injured. Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television channel showed a convoy of ambulances driving through the Mina camp. Some of the wounded were evacuated by helicopters.

An Arab pilgrim who did not want to give his name said he had hoped to perform the stoning ritual later on Thursday afternoon but was now too frightened to risk doing so.

'€œI am very tired already and after this I can'€™t go. I will wait for the night and if it not resolved, I will see if maybe somebody else can do it on my behalf,'€ he said.

Efforts to improve safety at Jamarat have included enlarging the three pillars and constructing a three-decker bridge around them to increase the area and number of entry and exit points for pilgrims to perform the ritual.

More than 100,000 police and thousands of video cameras are also deployed to allow groups to be dispersed before they reach dangerous levels of density.

'€œPlease pilgrims do not push one another. Please leave from the exit and don'€™t come back by the same route,'€ an officer kept repeating through a loudspeaker at Jamarat.

Two weeks ago 110 people died in Mecca'€™s Grand Mosque when a crane working on an expansion project collapsed during a storm and toppled off the roof into the main courtyard, crushing pilgrims underneath.
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