WASHINGTON & RIYADH (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A loud explosion rocked the Euro Marche shopping area of the Saudi capital on Wednesday. Reports indicate that no one was hurt in the apparent blast.
The explosive device went off in a telephone booth outside the Euro Marche shopping mall on the outskirts of Riyadh, security officials said on condition of anonymity. The blast left no real damage.
A piece of a wall collapsed under the impact outside the entrance to the mall where five telephone booths stand, a correspondent said.
"It seemed to have been a stick of dynamite," left on the wall outside the center, Ibrahim Al Malek, head of the company that runs the shopping center, said.
However, police played down the scale of the blast that came after three explosions targeting Britons working in oil-rich Saudi Arabia in November and December. In those blasts, one person died and five were injured.
"From the first elements of the inquiry, it seems someone put some firecrackers like those used by children on the wall," a police officer said.
Police closed the mall for three hours and scoured the area with sniffer dogs for further explosive devices.
The mall is one of the most popular in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. The French franchise is owned by a group of Saudi investors.
Saudi authorities have made several arrests, including an American, while pointing to possible criminal, rather than political, motives for the anti-British attacks, which coincide with high anti-Western sentiment linked to the conflict in Palestine.
