After reports and videos surfacing online of heavy gunfire in the Saudi Arabian capital near King Salman’s residence sparked fears of a coup in progress, Saudi security forces claimed it was simple a case of a toy drone being detected near the premises, and that it was shot down.
The Riyadh police spokesman, quoted by the official Saudi News Agency (SPA), said a security screening point noticed a small, unauthorised recreational drone at 7:50 pm local time (1650 GMT), leading security forces to deal with it according to their orders and instructions.
There were no casualties, and King Salman was not at his palace at the time, a senior Saudi official told Reuters, though some reports had stated that King Salman had been evacuated from his residence.
“The king was at his farm in Diriya,” the official said, naming another area of the capital.
Amateur footage circulating earlier on social media showed loud gunfire that lasted for at least 30 seconds, leading to speculation about a possible coup and assassination attempt in the world’s top oil exporter, and questions about the whereabouts of the king and crown prince.
One video showed two police cars parked in the middle of a dark street. Reuters was unable to independently verify the videos’ authenticity. Asked about the footage, the official said the drone had been shot down, and added that the government would introduce regulations for the use of recreational drones.
Citizens from nearby areas who witnessed the events took to social media, convinced that the gunfire and ‘explosion’ was not proportional to that required to take down a toy drone, with many speculating that there had been an assassination attempt on the king.
With Change Comes Backlash
Saudi Arabia has witnessed a series of radical political changes over the past year under the king’s son, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has spearheaded reforms to transform the economy, open the country culturally, and preach a more tolerant form of Islam in the deeply conservative kingdom.
The 32-year-old leader ousted his older cousin as crown prince last summer in a palace coup and then jailed dozens of top businessmen and senior royals, including billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and National Guard head Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, in an anti-corruption sweep. Most of the detainees have been released after reaching settlements with the government.
Space for criticism has also narrowed in recent months following the arrests of prominent clerics and activists in an apparent bid to silence dissent. Those moves have helped Prince Mohammed consolidate his position in a country where power had been shared among senior princes for decades and religious figures exercised significant influence on policy.
But they have also fueled speculation about a possible backlash against the crown prince, who remains popular with Saudi Arabia’s burgeoning youth population.
Prince Mohammed returned earlier this month from a foreign tour that included the United States where he sought investments and support to curb Iranian influence in the region.
Riyadh and Tehran are locked in a decades-long struggle for supremacy that is being waged in several countries, including Yemen.
Iran-aligned Houthi fighters there have occasionally dispatched drones across Saudi Arabia’s southern border, but there was no apparent connection between that conflict and Saturday’s incident in Riyadh.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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