A tragic collision occurred when a bus carrying 46 passengers from Mecca to Medina collided with a diesel tanker on a highway, as reported by Gaurav Uppal, a senior Telangana state official, to The Associated Press on Monday.
“It is feared that around 45 individuals from Telangana may have perished in the accident, while one person sustained injuries,” said Uppal. Based in New Delhi, he is a key figure in coordinating the rescue operations with Indian authorities in Saudi Arabia.
In the aftermath of the accident, distraught relatives gathered at the Fly Zone travel agency office in Hyderabad, desperately seeking updates about their loved ones.
Saudi Arabian officials have yet to issue a statement regarding the incident.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar, and Telangana’s Chief Minister Revanth Reddy have all expressed their condolences to the families affected by the tragedy.
Jaishankar, in a message on social media platform X, assured that the Indian embassy in Riyadh and the consulate in Jeddah are actively providing assistance to the victims’ families.
Mohammed Tehseen said seven members of his family were on the bus, of which all but one had died. The injured survivor had “called after the accident to inform us about the tragedy”, he said.
Vishwanath Channappa Sajjanar, the police chief of Telangana’s state capital, Hyderabad, said preliminary reports suggests that at least 18 of the deceased were from Hyderabad.
He said most of the victims were from two families, and that the injured passenger was named as Mohammed Shoaib.
“I spoke to the Consul General of India and got the details,” Sajjanar told a press conference. “There were 46 people in the bus and one passenger survived with injuries.”
Sajjanar said the police was in contact with the travel agency through which the pilgrims had traveled to Saudi Arabia.
