Missiles have previously been fired at Riyadh from Yemen. Photo / AP
After residents in Saudi Arabia's capital reported hearing rare bursts of gunfire today, followed by videos of heavy shooting that circulated on the Internet, the Saudi Government said it had an explanation.
Someone had flown a recreational drone, without authorisation, and security forces had shot it down.
A government statement
said that guards at a checkpoint in Riyadh, the capital, observed the drone in the Al-Khozama neighbourhood, where a palace belonging to King Salman, the Saudi monarch, is located. The security forces "dealt with it according to their orders," the statement said.
"It was a small remote-controlled toy airplane that came into restricted airspace and was immediately shot down," said a Saudi official.
A retired government official who lives in the neighbourhood said that he heard gunfire, but it had only lasted a short time. "It went on maybe for two or three minutes," he said. "It is quiet now."
