At least 12 dead and more than 300 injured in an attack on Riyadh international airport, the capital of Saudi Arabia

Image source, Getty Byline, Parul Gupta and Jaroslav Lukiv Author's title, BBC News Published 14 minutes ago Reading time: 3 min At least 12 people have died and 309 have been injured in an attack on the international airport in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, local authorities reported. This comes days after Yemen's Houthis claimed similar attacks on the same facility. Saudi Arabia's Civil Aviation Authority said the victims included four Saudi citizens and two Bangladeshis, while Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Sudan, Syria and the United States each recorded one citizen killed. Operations at Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport have been suspended. More than a dozen ambulances rushed to the airport, Reuters news agency reported, citing a witness. The US embassy said it was "aware of the attacks" and urged American citizens to avoid the area. Meanwhile, a projectile fell near King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, in eastern Saudi Arabia, according to the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis. The attack comes a day after authorities reported that three Saudis — including a pilot — were killed in two attacks carried out the previous day against the airport by the Houthis, an Iran-backed group. Skip Most read and continue reading Most read End of Most read Three other people died in Houthi attacks on two Saudi airports on 6 and 7 October. A witness who was in the domestic flights terminal described seeing the impact at boarding gate 401 and "people injured before my eyes", adding: "Everyone was running." Western embassies in Saudi Arabia have warned their citizens to stay away from the airport, while the UK Foreign Office advised Britons to avoid the area "until the airport is deemed safe and to follow the instructions of the Saudi authorities". Image source, Getty Images Photo caption, Yemen's Houthis are believed to be behind the attack. "Major emergency" Several Gulf airlines announced the cancellation of their flights to and from the airport, with Kuwait Airways citing the "security situation" there. All flights bound for Riyadh were diverted or cancelled, according to data from air tracking service Flightradar. Medical staff were asked to report to hospitals to deal with the situation, a medical source told AFP news agency. "We were told we were facing a 'major emergency situation'", the medical source told the agency. The attack comes amid a marked intensification of fighting between Yemeni government forces — backed by Saudi Arabia — and the Houthis, who control most of the country's north-west. The Houthis say their attacks on Saudi Arabia are in response to the support it provides to government forces in Yemen's civil war. The conflict escalated after the Houthis seized, in a rapid offensive, strategic stretches of the Red Sea coast. These included the port of Mokha, located on the Bab al-Mandab strait; this strait is the narrowest point of the Red Sea and a critical passage for global shipping. Since then, pro-government Yemeni forces have claimed to have "secured" the strait, located at the southern end of the Red Sea. "Maritime embargo" A Saudi-led coalition was formed in 2015, after several Arab countries joined forces to prevent the Houthis from taking control of Yemen from the internationally recognised government. A temporary truce was negotiated in 2022, after years of air strikes and ground fighting that killed hundreds of thousands of people and triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. However, the informal truce began to crumble in July. The Houthis announced a "maritime embargo" against Saudi Arabia and began launching missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and oil tankers in the Red Sea. They said these were retaliation for what they described as a years-long Saudi blockade and an air strike on Sanaa airport. This article was originally written in English and we used an artificial intelligence tool to translate it. A BBC journalist reviewed the text before publication. More information on how we use AI. Download the new BBC World Service app. Choose BBC News Mundo and receive news alerts, documentaries and analysis, all in one place. Important: the new app is not available in the UK or the United States. You can also follow us on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, X, Facebook and on our WhatsApp channel. And don't forget to subscribe here to our newsletter to receive a special selection of our best content every Friday. Discover more Skip Video and continue Video End of Video