Thai Muslim woman killed, two missing in crane collapse

BANGKOK, September 13 (TNA) - Thailand’s Culture Minister Vira Rojpojchanarat said Sunday that a Thai Muslim woman had died and two other people were still missing in Friday’s tragedy at Mecca’s Grand Mosque, where a huge construction crane hit by strong winds had collapsed. The Hajj Affairs Office in Thailand had identified the 48-year-old Thai woman who died in the accident as Vanida Sadee, a native of southern province Pattani. Vira quoted the Religious Affairs Department for the update from Saudi Arabia, where the accident had killed up to 107 people and injured 238 others. The incident occurred as hundreds of thousands of Muslims from all over the world are gathering for the annual Hajj pilgrimage expected to begin on September 21. In an earlier report, a Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman said one Thai Muslim man and woman were those among the injured. Both had been hospitalised. (TNA)