A total of 464 Iranians were reportedly killed in the stampede during the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. Photo: Twitter.

Iran’s death toll from the Saudi hajj disaster has nearly doubled to 464 pilgrims killed, state media reported Thursday, a development that is likely to further strain ties between the Mideast rivals.

It wasn’t immediately clear how the rise in the Islamic Republic’s death toll, based on a hajj department statement posted on the website of Iranian state television, would affect the overall toll from the Sept. 24 disaster near Islam’s holy city of Mecca.

Read full story at The New York Times.