Riyadh airport suspends operations after Saturday attack injures several people

King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh suspended operations on Saturday, 10 October, after an attack injured several people, Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation said. The shutdown affects travellers using the capital’s airport while officials assess damage and check whether its facilities are safe to use.

The authority said the number of injured people was still being assessed. It gave no reopening time or final account of the damage in the statement carried by Asharq Al-Awsat. The statement also did not identify who carried out Saturday’s attack.

What Saudi aviation authorities have confirmed

The General Authority of Civil Aviation said the airport was targeted on Saturday afternoon and that operations had been temporarily suspended pending a full damage assessment and verification of the facilities’ safety. It said that work was being coordinated with relevant authorities. Its account establishes the attack, injuries and suspension, while leaving the extent of the damage and the duration of the closure unresolved.

A diplomatic source told AFP that a missile fired by Yemen’s Houthis struck the airport at about 3 p.m. local time, or noon GMT, according to a report carried by CNA. That account supplies a more precise time and an attribution than the aviation authority gave; neither was confirmed in the cited authority statement. AFP reported that the Houthis had not announced a new attack on Saturday.

Injuries reported at the airport and in hospitals

A medical source told AFP that emergency room doctors around Riyadh had been called in and that wounded people were being taken to hospitals. The source described many as being in critical condition. A source at one local hospital said five people were in intensive care there and estimated that dozens had been injured overall. Those are attributed medical accounts, not a final official toll.

Two doctors told AFP that pilgrims travelling to Mecca were among the people injured while waiting to board a flight. The report did not establish how many pilgrims were hurt. A relative of another wounded person told AFP that shattered glass had struck that person’s shoulders and arms.

Flights disrupted and embassies warn travellers

The closure affected flights as well as people already at the airport. Euronews reported that Kuwait Airways cancelled its KU775 service from Kuwait to Riyadh and KU776 from Riyadh to Kuwait on Saturday, citing the airport closure and the security situation. Euronews also reported, citing Flightradar24, that flights to Riyadh were being diverted or cancelled. That tracker account is not an official tally of affected flights.

The US, Canadian, German and Spanish embassies warned their citizens to avoid the airport, AFP reported. Near the airport, passengers carrying luggage were seen standing outside a metro station, according to the same report. The warnings and cancellations show the immediate effects beyond the damaged airport facilities, although authorities have not said how long the disruption will last.

How the latest attack follows Thursday’s strikes

Saturday’s incident followed attacks on the airport on Thursday, 8 October, that the Houthis claimed, according to AFP. AFP reported that those earlier strikes killed three people and damaged a plane. The group’s claim about Thursday does not establish responsibility for Saturday’s attack, for which the cited Saudi aviation statement gave no attribution.

The latest suspension is a new development at the same airport. An earlier NewsJaws report covered the evacuation reported after another attack; Saudi aviation authorities have now confirmed that Saturday’s attack injured several people and that operations were temporarily suspended pending safety checks.