Thunderstorm washes away pilgrims in Mecca as UAE battles incessant rains

Fierce storms have closed schools in Saudi Arabia's Mecca region, home to Islam's holiest site, the Grand Mosque, which was lashed by heavy rains and wind overnight.

Earlier this week on August 22, a bolt of lightning struck the famous Fairmont Makkah Clock Royal Tower hotel, lighting up the night sky as pilgrims attempted to round the Kaaba, the stone edifice covered in black silk at the centre of the Grand Mosque, towards which all Muslims pray.

Hussein al Qahtani, a representative for the National Centre for Meteorology, reported that the storm produced gale-force winds that exceeded 80 kilometres per hour (50 miles per hour).

According to Qahtani, the weather was comparable to a storm in 2015 that caused a crane at the Grand Mosque to fall, killing over 100 people and wounding hundreds more.

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There were no casualties in the storm on Tuesday.

Abu Mayyada, a resident of Mecca, claimed that when the worst of the storm struck, "everything went black in front of me" as he was out purchasing cigarettes and gas.

"I abruptly lost control of the car. I turned on the radio and began reading the Quran since I was unable to see anything. I didn't know what was going on," he said.

The meteorological office said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the Al Kakkiyah area of Mecca had 45 mm of rain in a 24-hour period.