RIYADH: Police apprehended a Sri Lankan worker in the Eastern Province for allegedly killing his Saudi sponsor in Alkhobar.

Confirming the incident, sources from the Sri Lankan Embassy said the mission had not received full details of the incident, since the area police had not completed their investigation. The police had launched a full-scale investigation into the homicide.

Diplomatic sources said the suspect is in the custody of the police in Alkhobar.

The tragedy took place when the worker, who was drunk, attacked the sponsor. The sponsor’s wife, who had interfered in the altercation in defense of her husband, was also injured. She is currently receiving treatment at a city hospital in Alkhobar and is out of danger.

The alleged killer, 53, had been working in Alkhobar as a domestic driver.

Sources said the driver, who cannot be named as investigation is ongoing, committed the crime at his employer’s house in Alkhobar. He then tried to end his own life, but police rushed to the scene and overpowered and arrested him, according to Arabic language daily Al-Sharq.

The Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh is yet to know further personal details of the alleged murderer, who was called by his friends as “Ratne” and is from Kalutara, some 35 km from the Sri Lankan capital Colombo.

The deceased Yousef Al-Mulla was laid to rest at Al-Thughbah cemetery in Alkhobar on Monday. A large number of people came to pay their last respects to the deceased, who was well known in the city.

Al-Mulla was a retired banker. Two of his sons are studying in the United States. His eldest son is flying into the Kingdom to accept condolences on the death of his father.

A Sri Lankan Embassy official described it as an unfortunate incident. “Such incidents rarely happen among our workers,” he said, conveying his deepest sympathies on behalf of the mission to the bereaved family.

The Kingdom has some 500,000 Sri Lankan workers, the largest concentration of the island’s 1.5 million overseas worker population in the Middle East.