JEDDAH, 29 April 2003 — One person was killed and five others injured in a street battle among youngsters in Taif’s Bukhariya district on Sunday, Al-Watan reported yesterday. One of the injured was in serious condition, the Arabic daily added.
Police arrested all the youngsters as well as the parents and relatives who joined the fight. They cordoned off the area to prevent renewed outbreaks of violence, the paper said, adding that the youngsters had used knives and sticks in the fight. The injured were taken to King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Taif.
Also in Taif, three youngsters stole the car of a Saudi businessman at gunpoint in the afternoon on Sunday.
Abdullah Al-Ruwaisi Al-Otaibi told Al-Watan that the incident took place when he was visiting Taif from Alkharma for business. “In the afternoon I went to Okaz Street with my servant for lunch,” he said. The gunman attacked him when the servant went to buy food from a restaurant.
“A youngster with long hair asked me to get out of the jeep, and he took out his gun and was going to shoot me. Luckily, I was able to overpower him and seize the gun,” the man said. But another youth shot at them and fled in the jeep. A witness, Muhammad Al-Zahrani, confirmed the story.
Meanwhile, Brig. Abdul Aziz Al-Beadi, director of police in the Eastern Province, said security officers were still questioning a gang of thieves for allegedly stealing two ATM facilities in Dammam and Sihat.
“The culprits have admitted that they stole the automatic teller machine in Sihat last year,” Al-Beadi said.
