A second strike on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport killed one person and injured 11. Footage shows people running in panic inside the terminal.
One person has been killed and 11 injured in a second strike on the international airport in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, officials said. A Saudi military spokesman said a projectile hit King Khalid International Airport on Sunday, causing a fire in one of its passenger halls.
Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said in a statement that one person, a Pakistani resident, had been killed in the attack. Exclusive footage from inside the terminal shows people in white clothing running in panic as chaos unfolds, with religious pilgrims seen rushing through the airport. The video has gone viral on social media.
Footage shows people in white clothing running as chaos unfolds
The strike comes a day after an attack on the same airport killed 13 people and injured 308 others, following similar strikes earlier in the week.
The Houthis in Yemen said they were behind the attacks and warned airlines and passengers against using Saudi Arabian airports and airspace. The group said it targeted the airport with a mix of ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones, in the past 24 hours.
They also attacked oil facilities and Dammam airport in eastern Saudi Arabia, their military spokesman Brig Gen Yahya Saree said. He vowed to continue “escalating operations deep inside Saudi Arabia,” warning that all Saudi airports were potential targets apart from those in Mecca and Medina.
The Houthis have said they are targeting Saudi Arabia over its support for government forces in Yemen’s civil war, as well as an air strike on the airport in Sanaa.
On Sunday, Maj Gen Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition, said air defences had intercepted a missile near the airport in Riyadh, while authorities dealt with the fire caused by an “unknown projectile” that hit Passenger Hall No 4.
US President Donald Trump has said the US would “make a decision” and “move very quickly” on whether to strike the Houthis. UK Defence Secretary Wes Streeting suggested the UK could “potentially” provide more support for Saudi Arabia.
Saturday’s strike was the deadliest single attack on a Gulf Arab country since the war between Israel, the US, and Iran began in February. The Saudi-led coalition vowed to respond, calling it a “war crime.”
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Four Saudi nationals, two people from Bangladesh, and one person each from the US, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan, and Egypt were among the dead. The Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia said an Indian man had succumbed to his injuries.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the attacks and confirmed that a US citizen was killed. UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said he was “appalled.”
The UK Foreign Office is advising against all travel to parts of Saudi Arabia, including areas within 10km of the border with Yemen. Other western embassies have warned their nationals about travel in the region.
The latest uptick in violence comes after a temporary ceasefire between the Houthis and Saudi-led forces, brokered in 2022, collapsed in July.