Egypt says death toll from hajj disaster has risen to 55, 120 missing

CAIRO – Egypt says 55 of its citizens are among the more than 700 people who died in a crush of Muslim pilgrims during this year's hajj in Saudi Arabia.

Minister of Religious Endowments Mohammed Mokhtar Gomaa told the state-run Middle East News Agency on Sunday that 120 Egyptian pilgrims are still missing and 26 are receiving treatment for injuries sustained during the disaster in the town of Mina, near the holy city of Mecca.

Saudi authorities say at least 769 people died when two large waves of pilgrims converged on a narrow road, in the deadliest event on the annual pilgrimage in a quarter-century. The hajj annually draws some 2 million pilgrims from 180 countries.