Capt. Abdul Hakeem Al-Joufi, director of air evacuation, said: “Three helicopters took off in response to the call for assistance. On reaching the site, the choppers managed to transfer the injured to the hospital within five minutes,” he said.

He said the air ambulances reached the site within minutes despite the distance from where the helicopters had taken off — the Al-Shumaisy station in Makkah.

Al-Joufi confirmed that air ambulance helicopters helped to transfer the critical cases to hospitals while ambulances took the less critical cases, and some others were offered first aid on the site.

The ambulances had to negotiate rush-hour traffic.