He said police have asked the municipality to demolish all such houses whose owners cannot be traced. As for the houses with known owners, the municipality should ask them to maintain and lock them. "Any slackness in this respect will subject the owners to legal accountability," he warned.
Makkah residents are unanimous about the threats and hazards these houses pose to the public.
"The deserted homes pose a grave danger to society. Most of them are found in underdeveloped districts, including Al-Hindawiyah, Al-Mansour, Al-Otaibiyah, Al-Zahir and Bisha," said Rayed Sulaiman, a Saudi resident of Makkah.
He said the deserted ruins were behind a number of criminal and unethical practices. "The officials concerned must move fast to demolish the uninhabited houses so they aren't misused," he said.
Sulaiman also asked the police to commit the owners to lock the houses carefully and always inspect them so they would not be used by criminals and perverts. In addition, he requested the police to compel the owners to appoint security guards to guard them.
Hassan Al-Kuthari, another Saudi, said the deserted houses are being used as criminal dens. He said in Al-Mansour district, where he lives, a group of illegal Yemenis used a deserted house as a place to sell fake Zamzam water. He said the gang went undetected until a committee from the municipality caught them.
Ibrahim Essam said one of the residents of Bisha district went missing. After a week, residents noted a bad smell emanating from one of the deserted houses. They informed the police, who found his body dumped in a water tank in the house.
The acting police spokesman said district mayors have been asked to provide police with regular reports about the situation of the deserted houses. He explained that the police would submit these reports to the municipality in order to take action if necessary.
Al-Harbi recalled that recently a money-laundering gang killed one of its members and left his body to rot in an abandoned house in Jabal Al-Sudan in Al-Malawi district. Another deserted house was used as a warehouse for women's handbags stolen by thieves.
Al-Harbi warned the owners of these houses that they would be held responsible for any crime taking place in their houses.