Pilgrim killed, 17 injured in road accident

MAKKAH: An Umrah pilgrim was killed and 17 others, one of them critically, were injured when their bus hit a truck on the Madinah-Makkah highway early Friday morning.
The bus, carrying 40 pilgrims from Eastern Province, rammed the truck from behind, Col. Talaat Mansouri, Makkah traffic director, was quoted as saying by local media on Saturday.
Abdulaziz Badoman, spokesman of the Saudi Red Crescent in Makkah, said the operations room received information about the accident at 3.75 a.m. from a citizen. He said the accident happened on the highway toward Makkah, after Kubri Bryman and opposite Hijaj Center.
Of the injured, 15 were taken to the Al-Noor Specialist Hospital and Al-Zahra and Haram General Hospital in Makkah. The air unit transported two others, one of them in critical condition, to the Al-Noor Hospital.