Saudi Arabia officials have disclosed that 1,028 Muslim pilgrims were evacuated on Thursday, when a fire broke out in a hotel in the city of Mecca, a week ahead of the annual haj pilgrimage.
Spokesman for the Saudi Civil Defence agency, Abdullah al-Harthi, said in Riyadh that two pilgrims were injured in the fire.
He said the cause of the blaze, which started on the eighth storey of the 11-floor building, was not immediately known.