US mission in Saudi Arabia warns citizens of school shooting

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. mission in Saudi Arabia said Wednesday there was a shooting at a private school in the capital, Riyadh, but that no children were present at the time.

The official Twitter account for American Citizen Services in Saudi Arabia advised U.S. citizens to avoid the area around the Kingdom School in Riyadh. No U.S. citizens immediately appear to have been caught up in the shooting.

State-linked Saudi news websites Okaz and Sabq reported two faculty members were killed in the shooting, a Palestinian and a Saudi national, and said a man of Asian origin was also wounded. Okaz said the shooter was an Iraqi teacher who had been fired from the school.

The school is part of the GEMS global network of schools and is owned and operated by a company of billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Its website says it is a girls’ and boys’ school from kindergarten through grade 12. The school segregates males and females by grade 4 as is customary throughout the deeply conservative kingdom.

An Interior Ministry official described it as a “criminal case,” suggesting this was not a terrorism-related incident. Riyadh Police are expected to issue a statement with more details.

A representative for the school could not be immediately reached for comment.