>> collapses in mecca. scores more are injured. horror at mecca's grand mosque. we'll have live this developing story.hello there i'm barbara serra, you're watching al jazeera live from london. also coming up on the program: panic at an austrian rail station. refugees beg for help. saudi led forces carry out an air strike on a yemeni tv

channel, they say it's a weapons store. one of the south pacific's tribes are in the venice film festival. >> hello there thank you for joining us. breaking news from straib, wher, at least 87 have been killed, others injured, when a crane collapsed on the grand mosque. these pictures show when the huge crane came down. friday is the busiest day for the mosque as people attend friday prayers.people have been taking to social media to call for blood donations. it's not clear yet what caused the crane to collapse but there were strong storms in the day.

the accident. mecca is in the west of saudi arabia, an area that has seen intense sand storms in the past few days. the grand mosque is considered the largest in the world, but construction was being done to increase its capacity. saudi television was reporting there were four cranes at the mosque at the time of the crash. al jazeera's hasan patel is at the grand mosque. hasan, just explain to us as an eyewitness what you heard and what you saw. >> reporter: hi barbara, basically i was standing around 500 yards in front of the gate that i that takes people into the main part of the complex. around 6:15, 6:30 in the evening, a lot of people running around, so i went back to the

hotel and then i found that subsequent thly the crane had collapsed. at that time no real fatalities were reported but i've been speaking to afghan pilgrims and they recounted firsthand what took place. they saw a lot of bodies on the floor, many it seems were injured, many times instantly and what followed was a rush to the exit. right now i'm actually in a hotel closer to the encumbrance and all i can see is police cars have cordoned the area off. there are people coming out, still coming out of the mosque, but not many people allowed to go in. still coming in and out of the main road. >> and hasan, obviously, friday prayers are always going to be busy. but we are ten days away from the start of the hajj, the

annual pilgrimage, where millions converge on the mosque. how many were on the mosque or around the mosque? i know we can't have exact figures but how busy is mecca right now? >> it is so strange barbara, even though i'm a kilometer from mthe mosque, that's where i prayed my friday prayers. 800,000 people are in mecca for this weekend, even though we are ten days away, and that number will increase by the end of next week as well. everyone is trying to get into the main area of the mosque ang a lot oanda lot of work is takii can see cranes everywhere. i counted around 25 yesterday morning when i was going for the morning prayers. what's happened is the main gate, the main gate area has

been completely demolished. so people are using other smaller gates to try and get in. and it's slightly daunting when you're walking around this big, vast place, you see cranes everywhere and you can hear workmen also working away. >> and hasan obviously with so many muslims converging onto mecca, officials are used to dealing with people who faint from the heat. but nothing like this scale to you. how are emergency services coping? >> i saw around 25 to 50 emergency service cars, ambulances and police go towards the area. but what also took place was a sandstorm and heavy rain. i was talking to someone during the afternoon who was saying when the sand storm take place and also heavy rain takes place, you would expect more accidents taking place also power failures as well. so i think authorities are

actually under a lot of pressure and not only dealing with the problem inside the haram, but in and around the haram, people have been unable to get direct services due to people getting lost. at the moment i think they're under immense pressure. >> hasan patel with the latest from mecca. hasan for the moment thank you for that. we can cross-live to doha and speak to omar al saleh. you are raid to go to mecca to perform the hajj. hasan hinted at it earlier. the construction going on, saudi arabia has had to limit the number going, because millions head there every year to perform the hajj.

>> yes, that's true. the biggest expansion ever. having this big multibillion dollar project, to transform to increase the capacity of the grand mosque to allow up to 2 million pilgrims in that grand mosque barbara. so quite massive. around 2020, still few years ahead. so it's quite a big, quite massive, and when you look the pictures of the skyline of mecca in particular, the ones surrounding the grand mosque you'll see it's full of cranes, big massive cranes which turned

the entire complex into a construction site. >> in ten days the hajj starts. how do you think, how do you think it's going to affect their preparation for this year's hajj? >> i think it will put them under the spotlight. because clearly, whatever preparations they have, because by now they already have had and sealed off all the preparations because people are -- pilgrims are already arrive being in saudi arabia, are already in mecca. so i think now it will force them, it will pressure them to adopt more safety measures in particular. in the area surrounding the ground, the grand mosque. and obviously the issue of the big massive cranes. now emir of mecca has ordered an investigation of the incident. there are an issue of report

which blames the incident on the weather. how it will reflect this year's pilgrimage, i'm not sure. i don't think it will affect it but it will put the saudi officials under the spotlight to improve the safety measures in mecca and the other areas. >> omar al saleh, we'll cross to you live again as the event progresses. thank you. we will now see pictures coming in from mecca. you can see the devastation of -- there is a picture of the grand mosque, as it stands, and that is of course the cover, that is the center of the mosque, where the prayers are directlied to, mecca usually expects a couple of million people to attend to perform the hajj every year. saudi arabia has had to limit the number of people, and part of the reconstruction as we were hearing of all the work is to be

able to handle the capacity. we'll have more on this developing story throughout coming hours. in other news, more than 430,000 refugees and migrants have crossed the mediterranean sea to europe this year. the international organization snore migration say 309,000 people landed in greece and that's almost three quarters of the total number that arrived in europe. the rift in europe's approach widened further on friday with the eastern european countries, hungary, poland, serbia and czechoslovakia, over the

hungaryn border, people were held back from boarding friday. train had been brought in to transport rchtio refugees to vi. but things soon got chaotic. almost 4,000 refugees crossed into austria from hungary, but just 450 were actually allowed on the train. hungary is facing mounting criticism over its treatment of refugees. as mohammed jamjoom reports from rusk in thrisk in therocske hund

about what they are going to face once they get in. many fear what will face them when they get in. i'm trying to get into holland but i hear germany is the only country that will take rivelings who have been rowed and firpted here. how exactly will they be treated? conditions inside the camp are appalling. >> hungarian government has the capacity nor the political will to address the needs of these people. >> men and women fenced in desperate to leave. he says they look more like prisoners than refugees. >> so these are thoroughly miserable conditions. >> absolutely, yes.

people are just crowded in like animals. >> attempting to send a message by deliberately treating refugees. >> they want to make their lives as miserable as possible. word gets out, many thousands still planning this journey, to as many as possible. >> reporter: in a statement hungary's interior ministry says these statements are taken out of context and the media shouldn't jump to conclusions. the influx continues even as the weather worsens. huddling together to stay warm they use whatever they can to stay dry. throughout hungary their stories are only getting worse. refugees desperate and deprived who can't understand why they are unwelcomed. >> i met a man at kelatee station who escaped from a town held by i.s.i.s. he told me sitting there in

kelate rvetion stationtee statis three children, i if there is an explosion you die once. here, i dial a million times in front of my children. >> reporter: the last thing they of expected was to be stripped of their dignity. mohammed jamjoom, bicske, hungary. >> 77 different operations since monday, pulled 2300 refugees off dangerous bolts. these pictures were taken off the coast in western turkey, more than 430,000 refugees have crossed the mediterranean to europe this year. that's more than twice the number that crossed last year. while there's no sign of the

crisis abating, with many, many more refugees crossing to the greek islands this week. earlier al jazeera spoke with the head of the united nations refugee agency who says a complete overhaul of europe's policies is needed to sox the problem. >> the crisis is absurd. they move from greece to hungary, hungary to austria. some people should come to greece, they come to an island they are properly treated in that island they are screened and if it is proven that the person is a refugee, then they should move either to sweden or to germany os or to france and e

received properly, be integrated into the society, receiving a future, instead of going on country by country step by step, we need to have an orderly system that is manageable. we are talking about 4,000 people a day in the european union that has 500 million people. >> anthony gutierrez, speaking to us earlier. germany is anticipating 800,000 refugee applications in 2015. while the country's politicians insist it can work over the numbers, winning over the hearts and minds in a small village is a challenges evere challenge. rob reynolds traveled ozelo for this report. >> zelo has five and a half thousand residents. there are more than a thousand refugees in the region and with

refugees surging each day there will soon be hundreds more placed here. some residents welcome them. this woman said she hestles wass a refugee in world war ii. >> i know how it is on the road with no food water or place to stay. >> there are too many, they are overrunning us. >> translator: german society will go under because we're being put into a corner. >> reporter: the area is economically depressed and has been losing population for decades. >> translator: in many places buildings are empty. people are afraid of the refugees because people don't know foreigners here. they have never left the region, only know their village community. >> reporter: getting people to overcome those feelings takes a lot of work says local

administrator. >> first thing we do is explain what position the asylum seekers are in. some people don't know anything about that. >> this shelter house he 65 people, refugees from several countries. we visited with this man and two of his friends in the room where he's lived for more than nine months. >> translator: it is clean, we get medical care and everything, we get our benefits so we're pretty content. >> sinjar said he has never spoken to a single person outside the shelter. >> we would like to mix with other human beings in order to get yusmed to these people. >> the people say they're perfectly happy with the way they're treated an no conflicts with any germans. but they're anxious to move on and find tear own place in

german society. >> this woman and her husband and three-year-old daughter fled from atakia in syria. >> i hope to afford my daughter a good future and i want to complete my study here in university. we love germany people. >> reporter: maybe these children already learning german at school will help their families integrate into their own land and pave the way for thousands of new arrivals. rob reynolds, al jazeera, zelo, germany. >> still to come on the program, we have had confirmation from the saudi authorities, 87 people killed, ten days away from the start of the hajj, many people

gathering in mecca. we'll bring live reports from saudi arabia. we are also about going to talk to one of our weather presenters in doha because that part of doha has seen intense sand storms. we will examine how the sand storms could have affected the crane. we don't know the exact details behind the accident in mecca. all that coming up throughout the program. we'll also report from the japanese city of josso where torrential rain has flooded thousands of homes.

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>> hello there, welcome back. here is a reminder of the main breaking news on al jazeera. 87 people have been killed and more than 184 injured after a crane collapsed i saudi arabia's main mosque in mecca. a week before the annual start to the hajj pilgrimage. there's been fierce sand storms

in the area. richard anguin is the main meteorologist. richard. >> at this stage, it's difficult to say in terminates of intensity. all the ingredients were there. it's hot and humid, humid for so long. change of wind direction linked to the area of sand storms. this area of low pressure moving in and provided the uplift which is the key thing. across the mountains that border the red sea, we've had these storm clouds forming quite a line and moved across mecca, massive cloud took away a huge amount of energy. the fact that we had a huge stand storm is not surprising. >> richard do you think the winds would have been large enough to actually down a crane?

>> you know barbara over the years we've had these sort of situations where we've had strong winds and it seems cranes, which seem these days the most vulnerable to strong rain events. it's certainly possible when you get these really cold down drafts, this dense air pushing away that we could have gusts in excess of 100 kilometers per hour. if it was enough to bring down a crane, is a matter the investigators will be looking into. >> richard anguin, thank you very much for that. all developments on the story will be brought to you as we get it here on al jazeera. in other news, a yemeni tv station has been destroyed in air strikes by the saudi led military coalition. the building in sa florida was allegedly used by houthi as a weapons store.

hashem ahelbarra has more. >> military jets strike positions in the capital sa florida. coalition forces led by saudi arabia says they are targeting ammunition depots on the outskirts of the city. the fighting has escalated across the country. in the central city of ta'izz, informs loyal to exiled president ali abdullah saleh, try to retake areas they recently lost. houthis backed by troops loyal to deposed president ali abdullah saleh insist they have the upper hand. >> no side has been affected. the only side that has lost over the last six months has been the people of yemen, the 25 million people who are now suffering,

and ongoing very fierce humanitarian crisis. >> reporter: these are coalition reenforcements on their way to the province of mareb. that's where most of yemen's oil and gas installations are located. fighter jets are also targeting houthi military bases, rocket launches and troop gatherings. offensive to retake control of sanaa. the capital was captured by the houthis a year ago who later spread their military and political influence. the u.n. is planning to hold talks with all sides, but not clear whether bringing a close to the colon flict whic conflice

country. hashem ahelbarra, al jazeera. sergey lavrov's comments regarding the assad regime. severe flooding in yap has prompted prime minister abe to hold an emergency meeting of the parliament. >> japan's 18th typhoon of the year continued its destructive path. as it moved up the island of honshu it dumped an unprecedented amount of rain. >> it was awful but i'm happy i've been rescued. >> the self defense force led the rescue effort from the air as two rivers burst their banks in miagi prefecture.

unleashed its fury on the city of josso. several days of rain saw the river burst and take everything with it. >> translator: we were preparing to evacuate when the firefighters rushed to tell us that the river bank had collapsed so we hurriedly got into our car to escape the flood but by that time water was up to our knees. >> it's worse that i'd expected. i was once again reminded of the energy of water disasters. >> evacuation centers have been set up. assistance from volunteers. >> we decided to help out the victims of the flood as they go through this tough time. >> reporter: this was some of the worst flooding japan has seen in more than 60 years but for now the situation seems to be improving. the good news in this area is that the award is receding

quickly, enabling a cleanup operation to begin but clearly it will be some time before many people are able to return home. wayne hay, al jazeera, josso, japan. >> a court in india has found 12 men guilty of the mumbai train bombings. men faced the death penalty or life in prison. fez jamil has more. >> reporter: the blasts were the worst to take place in some time. put on several trains which went off over the course of 11 minutes during the morning rush hour. the victims were daily commuters, people going to work and to school. police initially blamed the attack on a banned islamic student movement but shifted the blame onto several groups that india blames or the the