Saudi Arabia has barred more than 269,000 people without permits for the annual Hajj pilgrimage from entering Mecca this week, authorities said, as the world's largest annual gathering of people has officially begun.

A Saudi government spokesperson says more than 1.5 million foreign pilgrims are in the country for this year's Hajj.

Millions of Muslim pilgrims surged into the Jamarat complex in Mina early Friday morning to perform Ramy al-Jamarat—the symbolic stoning of the devilThis marked a critical stage in the annual Hajj pilgrimage,