Several people have been injured in an Islamist bomb attack at a Remembrance Day ceremony attended by foreign diplomats in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, French authorities have confirmed.
Remembrance Day Terror Attack
The French foreign ministry stated that an improvised explosive device was detonated at a cemetery for non-Muslims, while officials from several consulates remembered the end of World War One. It strongly condemned what it called the “cowardly, unjustifiable attack”. The Saudi authorities have not confirmed anything yet.
On 29 October, a guard outside the French consulate in Jeddah was stabbed and injured by a Saudi man on the same day that three people were killed in an Islamist terror attack in the French city of Nice. French journalist, Clarence Rodriguez, tweeted photographs depicting the aftermath of Wednesday’s attack, including one showing an injured person being treated. She wrote:
“Attempted attack this morning at the non-Muslim cemetery in Jeddah. During the #11November ceremony. In the presence of the consuls-general of France, [Ireland], [Britain]… and French expatriates, there are wounded… [13] days after the knife attack at the consulate, France targeted once again!?”
A Greek diplomatic official confirmed that four people were injured by the explosion and that one of them was Greek. He was a security officer in plainclothes who had only just joined the Greek consulate.
The French foreign ministry declared that the consulates affected by the attack were calling on the Saudi authorities to “to shed as much light as they can on this attack, and to identify and hunt down the perpetrators“. The French consulate in Jeddah issued advice to French nationals in Saudi Arabia calling on them to exercise “maximum vigilance” in the aftermath of the attack.
READ MORE:
- Terror threat level raised to “severe” in the UK
- Remembrance Day: Prince Charles attends ceremony