SHAFAQNA- Iqna: Iran‘s oldest pilgrim who will travel to Saudi Arabia for Hajj this year is 107 year old, an official said.
Speaking at a press conference in Tehran on Sunday, Head of the Iranian Medical Center for Hajj Pilgrims Mohammad Taqi Hellisaz added that the pilgrim is from Kordestan province, west of Iran.
He added that youngest traveler to the holy sites from Iran is one year old.
According to the official, more than 1,800 Iranian pilgrims this year are aged between 70 and 80, while 137 pilgrims are under 18.
As for the country’s medical teams for Hajj, he said the first batch has left for Saudi Arabia and two more will travel to the Arab country in days.
Nearly 86,000 Iranians will make the Hajj pilgrimage this year.
Iran sent 86,000 pilgrims to Saudi Arabia for Hajj in 2018. In 2017 some 85,000 Iranians made the pilgrimage.
A year earlier, more than 1.8 million pilgrims attended Hajj but Iranians stayed at home after tensions between Riyadh and Tehran boiled over following a deadly crush of people during the 2015 pilgrimage.
On September 24, 2015, thousands of people lost their lives in the deadly crush after Saudi authorities blocked a road in Mina during a ritual, forcing large crowds of pilgrims to collide.
The crush was the deadliest incident in the history of the pilgrimage. According to an Associated Press count based on official statements from the 36 countries that lost citizens in the disaster, more than 2,400 pilgrims were killed in the incident.
Saudi Arabia claims nearly 770 people were killed, but officials at Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization say about 4,700 people, including over 460 Iranian pilgrims, lost their lives.
Read more from Shafaqna:
Iran leader urges pilgrims to hold ‘Dissociation from Polytheists’ in Hajj in best manner