FEARS are growing that Bolton families could be involved in the massive fire which raged across a tent camp outside Mecca killing at least 300 people last night.

More than 200 people from the Deane, Great Lever, Farnworth and Daubhill areas are thought to be among the two million Muslims gathered for the annual pilgrimage to Mount Arafat in Saudi Arabia.

And today, the anxious girlfriend of a 30-year-old Bolton man who had gone on the pilgrimage with his family, told of his chilling premonition that disaster would strike.

She said: "I spoke to him the night before last and he asked me to pray that he got back safely. He was very serious about it and extremely worried about the overcrowded conditions which he knew were dangerous and could prove fatal."

She has not heard from her boyfriend, who was visiting Mecca on the five week pilgrimage with his family, since. She said: "He had been regularly telephoning me and sending me letters, but I have heard nothing from him since he rang on Monday night. I am very worried."

A spokesman from the Macca Mosque on Grecian Crescent, Great Lever, said: "Eight people from this Mosque have gone to Mecca. We are trying desperately to get information about them."

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