Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz on Tuesday ordered that the families of those killed – or who had been permanently injured – in Friday’s crane collapse at a Makkah mosque each be paid 1 million Saudi riyals (roughly N65 million) in compensation, Anadolu international news agency has reported.

It quoted a royal decree issued by the king as requiring that 500,000 riyals (roughly N32.5 million) will be paid out to those who suffered less serious injuries.

Six Nigerian pilgrims died in the tragedy, according to the National Hajj Commission (NAHCON). The agency said the victims comprised one male from Kaduna State, four females from Gombe and one male from Katsina. They were buried yesterday in Martyrs’ Cemetery, situated adjacent to the mosque where the incident took place.

It has not been disclosed how many Nigerians were injured in the tragedy.

A total of 110 people were killed – and at least 235 injured – when a massive crane collapsed in Makkah’s Grand Mosque on Friday.

When the accident occurred, the mosque was teeming with hundreds of worshippers performing the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

Saudi officials initially attributed the accident to “strong winds”, which, they said, had caused the crane to fall inside the mosque, which is currently undergoing extensive expansion works.

However, on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia’s official press agency SPA reported that board members of the Bin Laden Group – a prominent Saudi development firm involved in the expansion works – had been barred from leaving the country.

The news agency went on to report that a commission of inquiry had found the development firm at least partly responsible for the collapse of the crane, which, the commission asserted, had been left in a “precarious position”

•Photo by News Express Correspondent Garba Ahmed shows Nigerian officials and pilgrims praying for the dead victims . . . on Sunday night in Makkah.

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