Jump to content

Talk:1990 Mecca tunnel tragedy

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cause of deaths

[edit]

SheriffIsInTown, what is your basis for concluding that "most people got killed because of suffocation due to failure of ventilation system in the tunnel, people just could not get out of the tunnel and died because of suffocation."? I think the investigations of this event were far from satisfactory and can find no good evidence regarding which causes of death were most to blame. However I understand there may be a 1992 US government source that has greater detail on the incident which I have not yet found.--Milowenthasspoken 14:57, 29 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Tunnel location and information

[edit]

Can anyone help identify, with sourcing, the exact tunnel where this occurred? Some English sources refer to it as the "al muaissem tunnel" with various spellings (including "Mo'essem"[1]). Sources also conflict regarding when it was built, some sources make it sound like it was built 2 year prior to the tragedy, as part of the building program initiated by the Saudis in 1988 after the 1987 Mecca incident. One British legislative source suggests it was built around 1979. It is also unclear whether this particular tunnel still exists. I find the lack of readily available sourcing for such a large tragedy to be incredible. Outside Western newspapers, Google news archive does have some nice coverage from the English Malaysian paper New Straits Times, but the early July 1990 issues are missing.--Milowenthasspoken 13:43, 6 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]