America News Agency

Among the new deaths reported on Thursday were 58 people from Egypt, an Arab diplomat said, adding that 630 of the 658 Egyptians who died were unregistered pilgrims.

The National Meteorological Center reported that the highest temperature at the Grand Mosque in Mecca this week was 51.8C.

A Saudi study published last month said temperatures in the region were rising by 0.4C per decade.

The search for missing pilgrims continues, as well as those who died from the heat during the Hajj pilgrimage.

Thousands of pilgrims each year attempt to make the hajj through irregular routes because they cannot afford the often costly official permits.

Saudi officials reported this month that hundreds of thousands of unregistered pilgrims have been removed from Mecca, but many are still seen attending the main ceremonies that began last Friday. This group was more vulnerable because, without official permits, they did not have access to the air-conditioned areas provided for the 1.8 million authorized pilgrims to cool off.

The timing of the pilgrimage is pushed back by about 11 days each year according to the Gregorian calendar, meaning next year's pilgrimage will take place in early June, potentially in cooler conditions.

A 2019 study by the journal Geophysical Research Letters said that heat stress for pilgrims due to the climate crisis will exceed the "extreme danger threshold" between 2047-2052 and 2079-2086 and "will increase in frequency and intensity as the century progresses".