Many people were wounded in a blast at Riyadh’s international airport on Saturday and travellers were evacuated from parts of the facility, the Daily Mirror reported on Saturday evening, carrying Reuters copy. It was the third time this week that the airport serving the Saudi capital has been attacked.

The Reuters account rests on two eyewitnesses and two people briefed on the matter. One eyewitness described seeing an explosion and then multiple people lying injured on the ground inside the airport. More than a dozen ambulances were seen heading to the site.

Operations suspended, no casualty count

Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation said operations were temporarily suspended after the attack on Saturday afternoon, and that officials were assessing the damage and determining the exact number of injuries, Al Jazeera reported. No official injury figure has been released.

That confirmation came after the Reuters filing, which recorded that the Saudi government’s media office and the civil aviation authority had not immediately responded to requests for comment.

Hiru News named the airport as King Khalid International Airport, citing foreign media and two regional officials — one saying people had been evacuated, the other that flights had been temporarily halted. Hiru noted that nothing further had been officially disclosed about the nature of the attack or the damage caused.

No claim of responsibility

The blast comes amid an escalation of missile strikes on the kingdom by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, who have declared Saudi airspace a zone of military operations and told airliners to avoid it. The declaration followed an offensive launched against the group by the Saudi-backed Yemeni government earlier this month.

Both Al Jazeera and Hiru report that the Houthis have not claimed Saturday’s attack, though Hiru notes they had claimed the earlier strikes this week.

The death toll from those earlier attacks is reported differently by different outlets. Reuters puts it at four people killed in two attacks this week, with an aircraft badly damaged. Al Jazeera and Hiru both report that Thursday’s attacks killed three Saudi nationals including a pilot; Al Jazeera separately refers to attacks earlier in the week that killed three civilians and injured 36. None of the accounts reconciles these figures, and this newsroom has not done so.

Flights diverted island-wide and beyond

Flight-tracking site Flightradar24 showed all flights to Riyadh either diverted or cancelled, with only a helicopter over the airport at one point. The airport told passengers to check their flight status with their airlines before travelling there — advice Hiru also carried.

Kuwait Airways cancelled flights to and from Riyadh, citing the airport’s closure over the “security situation”. Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways had already cancelled multiple flights, some extending into Monday. Organisers of major energy and investment conferences due in Riyadh said on Saturday they would go ahead as planned.

What this means for Sri Lanka

Saudi Arabia is among the largest destinations for Sri Lankan migrant labour, and the disruption has already reached Sri Lankan aviation. SriLankan Airlines suspended its Riyadh flights until 18 October and had separately relocated its Riyadh office.

The Foreign Ministry condemned attacks on Saudi civilian airports in a statement reported earlier on Saturday. That statement referred to “recent attacks” without naming any event, and no filing links it specifically to the blast reported on Saturday evening.

Not reported

No official figure has been given for the number wounded on Saturday, and no account says whether anyone was killed. No filing identifies what struck the airport, which part of the facility was hit, or whether air defences engaged. It is not reported whether warning sirens sounded beforehand.

No account says whether any Sri Lankan nationals were among those wounded, whether the Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh has issued advice to the community there, or whether SriLankan Airlines will extend its suspension beyond 18 October. No filing reports when the airport expects to reopen.