JEDDAH: A large number of men gathered at emergency departments and labs in Asir to donate blood for those injured in a mosque bombing in Abha on Thursday.

Reports quoting the Interior Ministry said security officers and three employees of the Special Emergency Forces Center were killed and seven were injured in the attack during the afternoon prayer.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Daesh is suspected to be behind the attack.

Many citizens and residents, particularly Egyptians and Arab nationals, arrived at the hospital in large numbers to donate blood in response to an appeal by the Asir hospitals.

Social media was abuzz with photographs of crowds at hospitals and commentators praising the unity and solidarity of Saudis as well as expatriates in such difficult times.

Witnesses said that when doctors refused to allow an elderly man to donate blood, he left the hospital in tears.

A large number of people in the region kept arriving at the Khamis Mushait hospital to donate blood only to be told by doctors and the staff there that sufficient amounts of blood has already been collected.

Thursday's attack was the deadliest against Saudi security forces since Daesh attacks first appeared in the kingdom last year.

A suicide bomber that struck a Shiite mosque in the eastern village of al-Qadeeh in May killed 22 people. That was the deadliest militant assault in the kingdom in more than a decade, and was followed a week later by another suicide bombing outside another eastern Shiite mosque that left four dead.

In November, a gunman opened fire at a mosque in the eastern Saudi village of al-Ahsa, killing eight.

The Saudi security forces dismantled a cluster of cells in the Kingdom set up by Daesh and arrested more than 400 suspects during an operation that extended over weeks and concluded in the month of Ramada.