JEDDAH, 8 May 2004 — Security is tight around Yanbu’s American school, which is set to reopen today. The school, which has 380 students, has been fortified with concrete blocks.
The school closed after last Saturday’s terror attack on ABB Lummus offices in Yanbu in which five Westerners were killed and many injured. The injured were recovering in Yanbu General Hospital and Royal Commission Hospital (RCH).
“Both hospitals released most of those with minor injuries. Some people with major injuries have now been transferred to the National Guard Hospital,” a local told Arab News after visiting RCH.
A few cases were also transferred to a hospital in Madinah. Some Westerners among them who have said they want to go home for further treatment may be released later this week.
Thomas Washburn, 41, a Canadian oil industry worker who was shot in the neck by the terrorist attack, is expected to be released from hospital toward the weekend as he is responding well to treatment. He had been working for ABB Lummus in Yanbu as a project manager for only about a week.
Mike Hardy, 57, who was killed in the terror attack, was a Muslim, according to friends. A Briton from Kent, he had come to the Kingdom to work as engineer on the project. He was said to have converted to Islam after marrying an Indonesian woman.
