APA - Lagos (Nigeria) The head of the Nigerian Government medical team on Pilgrimage to Mecca, Dr Ibrahim Kana, has described as false a report that a Nigerian pilgrim died of swine flu in Saudi Arabia.

Kana said in a statement on Saturday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, that the report was untrue.

A foreign news organisation had reported that four pilgrims had died of the virus, namely a Nigerian, Sudanese, Moroccan and an Indian.

Kana said that although 10 Nigerians were quarantined for the virus, they were later discharged after testing negative to the virus.

Eleven pilgrims out of the country’s 95,000 pilgrims have so far died in the Arabian peninsula, Dr. Kana said.

Free medical services are offered by the medical teams to pilgrims through the clinics in Mecca, Madina and Jeddah.

Last year Nigeria lost 45 pilgrims before Mount Arafat, the scene of one of the rituals for the pilgrims