Many people were wounded in an explosion at Riyadh’s international airport in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, according to eyewitnesses and people briefed on the incident.
Two eyewitnesses and two people briefed on the matter said that travelers were evacuated from parts of the facility after the explosion, which left multiple people injured.
One eyewitness recounted seeing an explosion and then finding several people lying injured on the ground inside the airport.
Reuters reported that more than a dozen ambulances were seen rushing to the airport.
Requests for comment on the incident did not receive an immediate response from the Saudi government’s media office or the country’s civil aviation authority.
The blast occurred as missile strikes by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels against Saudi Arabia intensified.
According to Reuters, Riyadh airport had already been attacked twice earlier in the week, leaving four people dead, others wounded, and an aircraft badly damaged.
Flight-tracking website Flightradar24 showed that all flights to Riyadh had been either diverted or cancelled, with only a helicopter hovering over the airport at one point.
The airport urged passengers to get in touch with their airlines directly and to check their flight status before travelling there.
Kuwait Airways said it had cancelled flights to and from the Saudi capital because of what it described as the airport’s closure due to the “security situation.”
Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways had also cancelled several flights between their respective hubs and Riyadh, with some cancellations extending into Monday.
The attacks have disrupted air travel ahead of major energy and investment conferences scheduled to take place in Riyadh.
Organizers said on Saturday that the conferences would go ahead as planned and sought to reassure attendees about security.
The Houthis have urged airlines to avoid Saudi airspace, declaring it a zone of military operations after the Saudi-backed Yemeni government launched an offensive against the group earlier this month.
