Fourth French national succumbs to injuries

Riyadh: A fourth French national died yesterday of injuries sustained when gunmen attacked a group of French travellers in Saudi Arabia the previous day, while uncertainties remained over the nature of the attack.

Physician Motawakel Al Hajaj with the King Fahd Hospital in Madinah said the fourth victim - a teenager, believed to be 17 years old - died yesterday morning, following an overnight operation to remove a bullet from his lung.

The attack on Monday occurred on the side of a road leading to Madinah, in an area restricted to Muslims only.

All four victims were French. Two of them were expatriate employees of the electrical equipment manufacturer Schneider Electric, and one was a teacher in a French school there, the French foreign ministry said. Their identities were not immediately released.

The men were resting on the side of a road about 17km north of Madinah when gunmen fired at their car, killing two on the spot while a third died later on Monday at the Madinah hospital, Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al Turki had said.

Women and children were also with the group but they were uninjured, Al Turki said.

The French foreign ministry said at a briefing yesterday that the teenager who died had a mother of Moroccan origin.

Private tour group

Those travelling were three couples with three children, part of a larger private tour group of French and Belgians who split up - some went back to Riyadh earlier, while the nine others continued on.

They were in the region for tourism, the ministry said, adding that officials were still considering different hypothesis about who attacked them and why.

An official with the Saudi Interior Ministry reached by telephone yesterday, refused further comment on the attack but said a statement would be issued later.