The Hajj Board is urging families whose relatives are currently on the Hajj pilgrimage to keep calm as it works to ascertain how many Ghanaians could have been involved Thursday’s stampede in Mecca.

The incident is reported to have killed at least 717 people so far with another 863 people injured when  about two million pilgrims were taking part in the Hajj's last major rite, ‘stoning the devil’.

Chairman of the board, Alhaji Ibrahim Tanko Abdul Rauf confirmed to Joy News, no Ghanaian pilgrim had as at Thursday evening been identified as part of the victims.

He however noted some Ghanaians are likely to be involved in the incident, the deadliest in 25 years – causing fear and panic at the Ghanaian camp.

Alhaji Ibrahim Tanko says they are monitoring the situation to take the necessary steps.

He said “we hope that even if there are going to be casualties it will be minimal. As for the deaths we cannot guarantee and I just want our people back home to know that we will do everything possible to identify our who are in the incident if there are any and if they are not too we will make that known”.

He also says how soon the identification process would be completed depends on the Saudi Authorities the board is working with. 

Saudi Arabia's King Salman has ordered a safety review for the Hajj pilgrimage after the incident.

It is the deadliest incident to occur during the pilgrimage in 25 years.

The king said there was a need "to improve the level of organisation and management of movement" of pilgrims.

Meanwhile, the head of Saudi Arabia’s central Hajj committee has put the blame of the stampede on “some pilgrims with African Nationalities”.