CAIRO, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Four more Egyptian pilgrims aged between 65 and 80 died in Saudi hospitals on Thursday after sickness during performing Hajj in Saudi Arabia's city of Mecca, raising the total death toll among Egyptian pilgrims to 67, said the Egyptian Health Ministry.
Head of Egypt's medical Hajj mission Ahmed al-Ansary said in a statement that the two men and two women died of heart attacks and breathing failures, referring to their old age for the exhausting rituals.
He said he has been coordinating with the concerned Saudi authorities to issue death certificates for the Egyptian dead pilgrims.
Some 70,000 Egyptians joined the annual Hajj season in Mecca that has just been concluded, which attracted more than 2.3 million pilgrims from all over the world.
Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam and among the most important rituals for Muslims worldwide, as every Muslim must perform it at least once in a lifetime if affordable.
