Newly-released drone footage shows large crowds of people trying to evacuate mount Meron during a religious festival prior to a deadly stampede which claimed 45 lives and injured over 150 people in the early hours of Friday.

During the stampede, which involved a structure collapsing at the festival, several people slipped, causing dozens more to fall as a consequence.

Authorities evacuated the festival and a field hospital was set-up on site, while dozens of ambulances and six helicopter evacuated the injured.

The incident took place as tens of thousands of primarily ultra-Orthodox Jews participated in the annual event, around the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a 2nd-century Tannaitic sage. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident ‘one of the worst tragedies Israel has known.’

The festival was the largest event taking place in the country since the beginning of the pandemic as Israel became one of the first countries in the world to ease COVID-19 restrictions nationwide.