Cairo: A Saudi cleric, his wife and their five children had been killed in a road crash in a coastal city in the kingdom, a Saudi newspaper has reported.
The tragedy occurred when a speeding truck collided with a car carrying the seven on a highway near the coastal city of Al Qunfudah, killing them all, Okaz added.
Sheikh Ahmed Al Basissy, an imam of a local mosque in Al Qundudah, and his family were returning from Makkah after performing Umrah or lesser pilgrimage there when the truck collided with their car, the paper quoted grief-stricken neighbours and friends as saying.
News of the deadly crash plunged the victims’ neighbourhood into grief.
Several Saudis, meanwhile, posted online condolences and voiced shock at the departure of the Imam and his family. Some mourners posted videos showing the late clergyman delivering sermons.
Saudi Minister of Islamic Affairs Abdul Latif Al Sheikh also offered condolences on the veteran cleric’s death.
The staff and students of a Quran memorisation school complex where, one victim named Ahmad was a ninth grader, expressed deep sadness over his death.
“He was a good example of students in terms of morals and pursuit of knowledge,” the institution’s manager Darwish Al Magrabi said.
Paying homage to the late cleric, Al Magrabi said Sheikh Al Basissy was a good and helpful man.
The victims were buried after an Islamic death prayer was offered for them in the Grand Mosque.
