JAUF, 16 January — An unemployed youth opened fire at worshipers assembled for noon prayers at a mosque in the eastern town of Sakaka, press reports said yesterday.
One of the worshipers was wounded in the firing at the Shoaibah mosque a few days ago, Al-Madina newspaper said. The motive of the attack is not yet known.
Al-Madina said the gunman, a 25-year-old youth, fled the scene after the shooting. The wounded was admitted to a hospital in the city.
The worshipers were about to begin the Dhuhr prayers when the youth pushed inside the mosque randomly firing a machine gun, eyewitnesses said. He threatened to shoot them all.
The youth fired at Abdullah Maazi when he stepped forward to pacify him. Maazi said, "I tried to persuade the young man, who was shooting randomly, to go out of the mosque so that worshipers came to no harm." But the youth refused to listen and continued shooting in which he was hit in the thigh, Maazi said. Then the youth ran out of the mosque and started firing to keep off anyone from trying to overpower him, Maazi added. The youth fled when his ammunition was exhausted.
According to another source, the youth was a trouble maker who often quarreled with people. He had threatened to shoot worshipers a few days ago and the matter was reported to the police. The youth is a known criminal and his passport was withdrawn five years ago, Ahmad Al-Rashid, imam of the mosque, was quoted as saying.
Schoolboy kills classmate
In Tabuk, meanwhile, a 10-year-old school boy killed a classmate during a fight, the Okaz newspaper reported yesterday.
Muhammad Ali Al-Shahri of the King Abdul Aziz School in Faisaliya district in Tabuk city, thrust a knife in the neck of his classmate Ghazi Al-Atwi. Both the boys were studying in class five.
Al-Shahri ran with his stab wound to his grandfather's house nearby where he breathed his last in the hands of his uncles. His wound measured five centimeters deep and two centimeters wide. The main blood vessel on the left side of his neck was cut in the attack.
Both the boys, popular among the students as well as the teachers, had been well-disciplined and were good at their studies. The files recorded their good conduct and teachers said they were not mischievous.
Muhammad Al-Laheedan, director of education in Tabuk, denied reports that the unfortunate incident took place inside the school campus. He said the fight broke out two kilometers away from the school. The officer stressed the need for parents to strictly monitor their children's behavior.
He said the school authorities sent a report on the incident to the undersecretary for students affairs at the Ministry of Education.
An officer at the juvenile home where Al-Shahri is being held said the boy confessed and recounted the events that led to the crime before security officials. The officials are observing the boy's behavior, he added.
