JEDDAH, 10 March 2003 — An Interior Ministry spokesman has called a “prank” a reported bomb scare in Jeddah on Saturday morning.

Three objects which looked like bombs were discovered at the emergency exits of a shopping center in downtown Balad during a routine morning check, Asharq Al-Awsat said in a report published yesterday. It quoted Saudi sources as saying the “bombs assembled from sticks of dynamite were amateurishly made and set to go off at 9 a.m. on Saturday.”

The paper said no arrests had been made and there was no immediate comment from the Saudi authorities.

“Someone had disguised plastic tubes as sticks of dynamite. An examination of the tubes revealed no explosives,” SPA later clarified, quoting an Interior Ministry spokesman.

The newspaper said dynamite had been laid at three emergency exits of the Al-Mahmal Center and wired to timers. All seven floors of the center and an adjacent nine-storied office block were evacuated after the explosives were discovered an hour earlier by a security employee on his rounds.

The report quoted security sources as saying that “amateurs” appeared to have laid the dynamite.

“We were informed by police that the objects found did not appear to contain any explosive material and looked more like a false alarm. The material was found wrapped in plastic bags which looked like dynamite sticks. The whole process took about 90 minutes before things returned to normal,” agencies said quoting a spokesman for the center yesterday.

The center, frequented by both citizens and expatriates, has 115 shops and a tower housing a bank. It resumed normal operations on Saturday and opened as usual yesterday.

Investigators are checking security cameras and questioning all employees of the center, but no arrests have been made.

Meanwhile, security has been “slightly beefed up” at the center, which is covered by a private security firm, the spokesman said, adding that the time cited for the “explosives” to go off was not a peak time for shoppers because most shops open only after 9 a.m.

The center, located on King Abdul Aziz Street, the busiest street in the city for shoppers and businessmen, is one of the most luxurious ones in Jeddah and a usual stop-off for VIP visitors.