Muslim pilgrims pray near the holy Kaaba (not seen) at the Grand Mosque, during the annual hajj pilgrimage in Mecca in this 2014 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

DUBAI, Sept 24 - At least 100 pilgrims were killed on Thursday in a crush at Mina, outside the Muslim holy city of Mecca, where some two million people are performing the annual haj pilgrimage, Saudi Arabia's al-Ekhbariya television reported.

The news channel also cited civil defence officials as saying that 390 people were injured in the incident.

The incident came two weeks after a crane toppled over at Mecca's Grand Mosque and killed at least 107 people.

Saudi authorities go to great lengths to prepare for the millions of Muslims who converge on Mecca to perform the sacred pilgrimage. Last year, they reduced the numbers permitted to make the haj pilgrimage on safety grounds because of construction work to enlarge the Grand Mosque.

The haj, one of the largest religious gatherings in the world, has been prone to disasters in the past, mainly from stampedes as pilgrims rush to complete rituals and return home. Hundreds of pilgrims died in such a crush in 2006.

In 1990, more than 1,400 died in a stampede inside a tunnel.

Saudi authorities have since spent vast sums to expand the main haj sites and improve Mecca's transport system, in an effort to prevent more disasters.

Security services often ring Muslim's sacred city with checkpoints and other measures to prevent people arriving for the pilgrimage without authorisation.

Those procedures, aimed at reducing crowd pressure which can lead to stampedes, fires and other hazards, have been intensified in recent years as security threats grow throughout the Middle East.