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A powerful explosion has hit Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh. The blast, at about midnight (2100 GMT), hit the Muhaya residential compound, which houses mainly Saudi workers - as well as foreigners - in the west of the capital. One eyewitness said there were many casualties - but there has been no confirmation of this. A spokesman for the Saudi interior ministry described the blast as a terrorist explosion in comments carried by the Saudi press agency (SPA). The explosion, near Riyadh's diplomatic quarter, comes a day after the United States shut its diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia after "credible evidence" of a threat and the UK embassy in Bahrain issued a similar warning.
Thirty-five people were killed in a string of suicide attacks in May on a Western compound in Riyadh. Screams Initial reports suggest up to three explosions hit the area - and they were powerful enough to be heard across the Saudi capital. "We heard very strong explosion and we saw the fire," Bassem al-Hourani, who said he was a resident at the targeted compound, told Arabic television station Al-Arabiya.
"I heard screams of the children and women... I saw a lot of people injured and I believe there a lot of people dead," he said. A thin plume of smoke was rising from the compound as police and ambulances rushed to the scene. Initial reports said the compound was mostly used by Saudis - but an AFP journalist in Riyadh told the BBC British people lived there too. 'Extremely wary' The US embassy in Riyadh said on Friday it had "credible information that terrorists in Saudi Arabia have moved from the planning to operational phase of planned attacks in the kingdom." The statement said: "The embassy strongly urges all American citizens in the kingdom to be especially vigilant when in any area that is perceived to be American or Western."
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said fears of an imminent attack in the kingdom meant it was "prudent... to warn Americans and to close our operations for a review." Missions in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dhahran were closed on Saturday. "We will take it day by day," said a US embassy official when asked when the operations would re-open. "We're very much on guard, very much aware of what's going on. I'm extremely wary," David Castillo, vice-president of a telecoms company in Saudi Arabia, told Reuters news agency prior to Saturday evening's attack. Britain, Canada and Australia last month issued similar alerts, which angered Saudi officials, who say they have made important strides in fighting terror inside the country. Terrorist funding Saudi police in Mecca recently uncovered a suspected al-Qaeda cell believed to be planning attacks. On Thursday, two suspected members of the cell blew themselves up apparently to avoid arrest, while a third suspect was shot dead by security forces in Riyadh.
The US Secretary of State Colin Powell, in an interview with a London-based Saudi newspaper Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat, said he thought the Saudi authorities could do more to combat terror. Saudi Arabia could make greater efforts in pursuing the sources of terrorist funding, he told the newspaper.
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