Manama: Social media users in Saudi Arabia have called for strong action against a group of young men who harassed two girls as they walked along the Corniche in the Red Sea city of Jeddah on Saturday.

A video clip of the mass harassment went viral on the internet, showing the group of adolescents following the two girls, one fully veiled and the other with only the upper half of her face showing.

The two victims were pleading with the noisy teenagers to leave them alone, but their pleas seemed to have fallen on deaf ears, Saudi news site Al Marsad reported on Sunday.

“This is totally unacceptable, and there should be stringent action,” Golden posted. “They are beasts and they should be severely punished.”

Another blogger writing under the moniker of Saudi said the adolescents were a dishonour to their families.

“They are totally ridiculous and they should be taken to a court of law,” he posted. “There is no respect for our traditions and I want to ask if these boys would accept any form of harassment against their sisters or mothers. Unfortunately, many people are no longer concerned with our way of life.”

Habissi said he was looking forward to the reaction of the police. “Now, we will see if there is any difference between the police in the Eastern Province and Jeddah on the west coast,” he posted.

In September, young men who were arrested in 2013 for harassment were flogged inside the mall where they verbally abused a group of girls.

“Regarding the case of the inappropriate unacceptable behaviour by a group of young men towards a number of girls at a shopping mall in the Eastern Province, all the legal procedures have been followed,” Abdul Aziz Al Harbi, spokesperson for the Eastern Province police, said. “The lashing sentence by the court has been recently carried out inside the mall in Dhahran,” he said.

The young men were arrested in October 2013 after a video clip of their verbal confrontation with the girls at the mall’s parking lot went viral on social networks.

The court issued jail sentences of between one month and five months and lashes to be carried out at the mall.

The video clip showing a group of young men terrifying the young girls wearing black abayas, the traditional cloak worn by women in the Gulf, and headscarves triggered a wave of condemnation in the country and prompted calls for stringent action against the young men.

Al Harbi said the police would not tolerate negative behaviour and would keep its zero tolerance policy towards any inappropriate attitude.

“We urge all young men and women to abide by public morals and respect for our religion and for the traditions of the homeland,” he said.

Several internet users said that the authorities should be strict in dealing with public harassment. Saudi Arabia does not have explicit anti-harassment laws and sentences are usually based on the discretion of the court judges.

According to a media report, 2,797 harassment cases against women were reported in 2012.

Around 60 per cent of the offenders were Saudis while the remaining 40 per cent were foreigners living in the kingdom.

The capital Riyadh topped the list with 650 cases, ahead of Jeddah with 250 and the Eastern Province with 210.