The death of 76 people in a Muslim pilgrims? hostel in Mecca before the annual haj prompted a rare flurry of media criticism of Saudi authorities on Saturday. ?Yet another building has collapsed, and with each one the bad management, bad supervision, and nonchalance of the concerned authorities are revealed?, columnist Abdul-Rahman Al-Rashed wrote in the main Saudi daily Ashraq al-Awsat.

Deadly stampedes, attacks by Islamist militants or a dangerous virus spreading through the crowds have been the main concerns of the Saudi organisers of this year?s pilgrimage. So the collapse of the hostel, which was only 30 years old, during the mid-day bustle of a narrow market-street on Thursday took authorities by surprise.

The accident occurred as hundreds of thousands of pilgrims crammed into the mountain holy city, where Islam was born, for yesterday?s start of the five-day haj. The incident was embarrassing for Saudi Arabia, whose reputation among Islamic countries rests to a large extent on its ability to host 2.5 million haj pilgrims annually. Officials initially put the number of dead at 15, but as rescue workers cleared the rubble on Friday the figure shot up.

Algerian pilgrim Mizasha al-Jumei, 74, told Reuters he spent four hours under rubble before being rescued. ?I can?t find my wife now, my colleagues tell me she is dead?, he said from his hospital bed, close to tears.

Egyptian Mohammed Suleiman, 70, said he suffered a dislocated shoulder after crowds panicked when the building began to fall. Ali Ahmed, a 35-year-old Yemeni, ran a small shop at the bottom of the building: ?I lost consciousness, and then woke up as people pulled me out of the debris?, he said.

An Interior Ministry official, who said it was still not clear what caused the collapse, told journalists the hostel had been licensed by the Industry and Trade Ministry. Still, a report in the daily al-Riyadh newspaper said: ?The state is pumping millions into the haj and honest businessmen are sticking to rules, but some who look for quick gain embarrass the country before the international community.?

King Abdullah said the survivors will finish their haj at the state?s expense, state media reported on Saturday. The haj is a duty for every able-bodied Muslim at least once in their lifetime.

The pilgrimage has been marred by tragedy in recent years. Some 250 pilgrims died in a stampede in 2004 during the stoning of three stone pillars which symbolise the devil.

This year health experts warned the huge crowds could create conditions in which a pandemic strain of bird flu emerges. The authorities, also wary of any militant attacks by al Qaeda supporters, have deployed a record 60,000 security men.

Heba KANDIL