The principal of the Japanese School in Dubai yesterday said the institution will admit Japanese students if their parents relocate to the UAE from Al Khobar in Saudi Arabia.

A Japanese diplomat in Dubai said earlier yesterday that Japanese oil company employees and their families could be relocated to the UAE. There are reports that panic has gripped the Japanese community in Al Khobar after suspected Al Qaida militants killed 22 people, many of them Asians, in a shooting spree and hostage-taking in Al Khobar.

The dead include eight Indians, three Filipinos, three Saudis, two Sri Lankans, an American, a Briton, an Italian, a Swede, a South African and an Egyptian.

The Japanese diplomat said: "If and when these people are relocated to the UAE, Abu Dhabi is the likely choice for settling down."

The Japanese Oil Development Company has a large presence in the capital and there are about 1,000 Japanese working in the UAE, said community sources.

Mitsunori Mhyuga, principal of the Japanese School in Dubai, which only has around 55 students, said he was aware of reports that about a hundred Japenese could relocate to the UAE from Al Khobar.

He said: "The report has come to our notice, and if there are students who need admission to school, we shall absorb them."

Executives of the Japanese oil company, located in the Petroleum Centre in Al Khobar, where the hostage drama was played out, could not be reached for comment.

According to reports in the Saudi press, Takehiro Kagawa, a counsellor at the Japanese embassy in Riyadh, said there is no evidence of any Japanese casualty during the Al Khobar crisis.

Kagawa said all seven Japanese living in the Oasis Residential Resorts were safe. Around 1,500 Japanese work in the Eastern Province of the kingdom.

Japanese oil workers are mainly concentrated in an oil field in Al Khafji, the neutral zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

One executive in Al Khobar when contacted by Gulf News over the phone said several foreign workers are relocating to Bahrain and Dubai. "People are scared. The malls and streets are very quiet," he said.

Killings leave Japanese in a state of shock

• Community members say panic has gripped Japanese nationals living in Al Khobar after suspected Al Qaida militants killed 22 people, many of them Asians, in a shooting spree and hostage-taking. Most of them are planning to relocate to safe destinations such as the UAE or Bahrain.

• The Japanese Oil Development Company has a large presence in Abu Dhabi and there are about 1,000 Japanese working in the UAE. In Saudi Arabia, around 1,500 Japanese, mostly in technical, professional and executive positions, are currently working in the Eastern Province.