At least 717 people are dead and 805 injured in a stampede of pilgrims at the annual Hajj in Saudi Arabia.
Thursday's crush happened in Mina, a large valley about five kilometres from the holy city of Mecca.
The Saudi civil defence directorate released photos on its Twitter account showing rescue workers in orange and yellow vests helping the wounded onto stretchers and loading them onto ambulances near some of the white tents.
The tragedy took place at 204 Street, one of the two main arteries leading through the camp at Mina to the stoning of the devil, or Jamarat, where Muslim pilgrims fling pebbles at three stone walls.
The head of Iran's Hajj organisation, Said Ohadi, said for "unknown reasons" two paths had been closed off near the scene of the symbolic ceremony.
"This caused this tragic incident," he said on Iranian state television.
Ohadi said the path closures had left only three routes to the area.
A hospital official told AFP a group of pilgrims leaving the Jamarat Bridge structure had collided with another group that was either moving in the opposite direction or camped outside.
Bodies were laid out on the ground, covered in white sheets and surrounded by personal belongings including shoes and umbrellas used by pilgrims to shield themselves from the sun.
Helicopters were flying overhead and ambulances were rushing the wounded to hospital, AFP reporters at the scene said.
At one hospital, a steady stream of ambulances was arriving, discharging pilgrims carried inside on stretchers.
The official Saudi Press Agency said more than 220 rescue vehicles had responded. Emergency teams were "working to ease the human congestion and give pilgrims access to alternative routes," it said.
Some two million people are taking part in this year's Hajj pilgrimage, which began on Tuesday.
The stampede is the deadliest disaster at the Hajj since 2006, when more than 360 pilgrims were killed in a stampede in the same area.
The tragedy came as the world's 1.5 billion Muslims marked Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, the most important holiday of the Islamic calendar.
It was the second major accident this year for Hajj pilgrims, after a construction crane collapsed on September 11 at Mecca's Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest site, killing 109 people.
The Hajj is among the five pillars of Islam and every capable Muslim must perform it at least once in a lifetime.
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