ARAFAT:

Muslim worshippers prayed on Mount Arafat during the high point of the Hajj pilgrimage on Thursday, as authorities urged them to avoid the hottest hours of the day after tragedy struck last year.

Thousands of white-robed pilgrims recited verses from the holy Quran from dawn on the 70-metre (230 feet) rocky rise near Makkah, where the Prophet Mohammed (Peace Be Upon Him) gave his last sermon.

But numbers thinned by midday following official warnings for pilgrims to stay inside between 10:00am and 4:00pm, a year after 1,301 people died in temperatures that hit 51.8 degrees Celsius (125 degrees Fahrenheit).

Delivering the annual Hajj sermon at Masjid-e-Nimrah in Arafat, the Imam and Khateeb of the Grand Mosque, Sheikh Dr Saleh bin Abdullah bin Humaid, emphasised the profound spiri

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