The flow of Umrah pilgrims during the holy month of Ramadan witnesses a considerable increase. For that reason, the civil defense in Mecca spares no effort to cope with the situation.Captain  Waleed Abu Shanab, the  director of operations in Mecca declared that the Civil defense are closely managing the pilgrims mouvements and that the authorities have implemented safety measures in the Haram area.

Precisely, he said, “the operations room had received about 22,000 calls during the first 10 days of the holy month of Ramadan and our department has set up 1,700 cameras at the entry and exit points of the holy city as well as in the central Haram area and the holy sites which help us control all situations. Our field staff reacts inn accordance with images from these cameras”.

Mecca’s operations room director added to say that there are three wireless channels used for general safety during Ramadan. These channels give commands to different teams and units.

Shanab declared that the operation room is also working on providing more units and forces available to deal with emergency cases.

According to him, there are various means of passing information.  It can be transmitted to the operations room via telephone as well as contacting 998 emergency numbers, cameras and alarm systems too.

He said that the operation room is supplied by a state-of-the-art system for the sake of the verification of the received calls and that the operations room has set up a plan to tackle floods if they might happen with the aid of the Meteorology and Environmental Protection Agency