Nearly two million Muslim pilgrims have performed a symbolic stoning of the devil, the riskiest part of the annual hajj pilgrimage, a year after the ritual's worst disaster in decades.
Saudi Arabia, which stakes its reputation on organising the world's largest annual Muslim gathering, has deployed thousands of security forces, civil defence staff and volunteers as well as modern technology including drones and electronic bracelets to ensure a safe pilgrimage.
Last year, Saudi Arabia said that nearly 800 pilgrims were killed when two large groups of pilgrims arrived together at a crossroads in Mina, a few kilometres east of Mecca, on their way to performing the stoning ritual at Jamarat.
Counts by countries of repatriated bodies showed over 2,000 people may have died, more than 400 of them Iranians.
Saudi authorities have said that some 1.86 million Muslims from around the world are performing the pilgrimage at Islam's holiest city, one of the main pillars of Islam which every able-bodied Muslim is required to undertake at least once.
In previous years, jostling to perform the stoning before returning to pray at the Grand Mosque accounted for many of the frequent stampedes and crushes that had afflicted hajj.
