Multiple people wounded in blast at Riyadh airport, say eyewitnesses

Many people were wounded in a blast at Riyadh’s international airport on Saturday, according to two eyewitnesses and two people briefed on the matter, and travellers were evacuated from parts of the facility.

One of the eyewitnesses reported seeing an explosion and then seeing multiple people lying injured on the ground inside the airport. More than a dozen ambulances were seen rushing to the airport.

The Saudi government’s media office and the Saudi civil aviation authority did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the incident.

Saturday’s incident comes amid an escalation of missile strikes by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis on the kingdom. The airport has already been attacked twice this week, leaving four people dead and others wounded, and badly damaging an aircraft.

Flight-tracking site flightradar24 showed all flights to Riyadh had either been diverted or cancelled, with only a helicopter hovering over the airport at one point.

The airport urged passengers to contact their airlines directly and check their flight status before heading there.

Kuwait Airways said it had cancelled flights to and from the Saudi capital due to what it described as the closure of Riyadh airport because of the “security situation” there.

Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways earlier cancelled multiple flights between their respective hubs and Riyadh, with some cancellations extending into Monday.

Houthi attacks on Thursday and earlier in the week had already prompted a number of carriers to suspend or cancel services to the Saudi capital, shortly before Riyadh is due to host major energy and investment conferences .

Organisers of those conferences said on Saturday they would go ahead as planned, and they sought to reassure attendees of their security.

The Houthis have said airliners should avoid Saudi airspace, declaring it a zone of military operations after the Saudi-backed Yemeni government launched an offensive against the group earlier this month.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

据两名目击者和两名知情人士透露，周六利雅得国际机场发生爆炸，造成多人受伤，部分旅客被疏散。

一名目击者称，他看到一声爆炸，随后看到机场内有多人受伤倒地。十几辆救护车赶往机场。

沙特政府媒体办公室和沙特民航局尚未就此事作出回应。

周六发生的这起事件正值也门胡塞武装（与伊朗结盟）对沙特阿拉伯王国发动导弹袭击升级之际。本周该机场已两次遭到袭击，造成四人死亡、多人受伤，一架飞机严重受损。

航班追踪网站 flightradar24 显示，所有飞往利雅得的航班要么改道，要么取消，一度只有一架直升机在机场上空盘旋。

机场方面敦促乘客在前往机场前直接联系航空公司查询航班状态。

科威特航空公司表示，由于利雅得机场因“安全局势”关闭，该公司已取消往返沙特首都的航班。

阿提哈德航空和卡塔尔航空此前取消了各自枢纽机场与利雅得之间的多趟航班，部分航班取消将持续到周一。

胡塞武装周四及本周早些时候发动的袭击已经导致多家航空公司暂停或取消飞往沙特首都的航班，而利雅得即将举办重要的能源和投资会议。

这些会议的组织者周六表示，会议将按计划进行，并试图让与会者放心，他们的安全不会受到威胁。

胡塞武装表示，航空公司应避开沙特阿拉伯领空，并宣布该领空为军事行动区。此前，沙特支持的也门政府于本月初对该组织发动了攻势。

这是一则正在更新的新闻。