Videos of ‘Saudi prince’s motorcade’ go viral on social networking sites

Some videos purportedly of a motorcade of a Saudi prince that allegedly triggered the deadly stampede in Mina during the Hajj have taken social media sites by storm.

News Deskbdnews24.com
Published : 1 Oct 2015, 12:01 PM
Updated : 1 Oct 2015, 12:01 PM

Iran has been claiming that the Sep 24 stampede was caused as two roads in Mina were closed to make way for the motorcade of Prince Mohammad bin Salman, son of the Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz.
 
Saudi Arabia, however, refuted the allegation. 
 
Iran and Saudi Arabia also differed on the death toll figure.
 
Iran claimed that the number of deaths was nearly 2,000 but the Saudi Arabia’s official claim is 769.
 
Iran’s national broadcaster IRIB claimed that 464 Iranian nationals died in the stampede.
 
But it could not be independently confirmed whether the convoy shown on the videos was actually that of Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s.  It’s also not certain whether the video was of that ill-fated day.
 
On one of the videos lasting four and a half minutes, a convoy of black SUVs, bus and ambulance could be seen moving slowly, intermittently stopping on the way.
 
People wearing the Hajj’s Ihram were also seen standing along the road.
 
The video with the logo of Iran’s Press TV was uploaded on YouTube from a channel named TB3.
 
Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Mansour al-Turki, denying the allegation, said no motorcade passed through the area since early morning on that day. No road was also closed, he said.