Saudi Makkah hotel evacuated after fire

A hotel in the Saudi Arabian city of Makkah, where two million Muslims will perform the annual Haj pilgrimage, was evacuated Monday after a fire broke out, the civil defence service said.

Civil defence spokesman Nayef al-Sharif said no casualties were reported in the fire, which was sparked by a working badly air conditioning unit on the eighth floor of a hotel in the Azaziyah district of Makkah.

All 600 residents, most of whom had come from Turkey and Yemen for the Haj pilgrimage, were evacuated and have since returned to the hotel, Sharif said.