LAJHORE AIRPORT (AFP) — An attack on Riyadh’s international airport killed at least 12 people and wounded 309 others, some of them seriously, Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation officials said on Saturday.
Four Saudi citizens were among the dead, as well as two Bangladeshis, one US citizen, one Egyptian, one Jordanian, one Syrian, one Palestinian and one Sudanese, the statement added.
Saudi authorities suspended operations at Riyadh’s international airport on Saturday after a fresh attack there left multiple people wounded.
The Saudi civil aviation authority confirmed an attack had injured several people at the sprawling King Khalid International Airport, with a diplomatic source attributing it to a missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
The situation prompted health officials to activate a rare mass call-up of doctors to deal with the “serious emergency”, a medical source said, while foreign embassies warned their citizens to avoid the facility.
Houthis have repeatedly targeted the facility, claiming a series of strikes on Thursday that killed three people and damaged a plane, though they did not announce any new attacks on Saturday.
Air traffic monitor Flightradar24 said 155 arriving and 161 departing flights had been cancelled, while a total of 222 flights were delayed.
AP and Reuters, amongst others, reporting a strike on Riyadh Airport this afternoon. Last commercial aircraft to land was 14:05 Local time. The last departure was at 13:39 LT. Flights bound for RUH are diverting elsewhere, mainly to Jeddah at the moment. https://t.co/qdT3aOyLdf https://t.co/HiuRaOoLPS
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) October 10, 2026
At around 6pm local time, Flightradar24 noted that flights bound for the airport were “diverting elsewhere, mainly to Jeddah at the moment”. It later shared a notice to airmen (Notam) for operations suspended till 12am.
A witness at the airport reported hearing an explosion while waiting to board a flight, and another said they saw a strike that left people wounded and fleeing in panic.
“I was on gate 403” at the domestic terminal, the witness told AFP. “I saw 401 hit, I saw injured [people] in front of my eyes. Everyone was running.”
A medical source told AFP that the health ministry had ordered ER doctors to report to hospitals around the capital to treat the wounded on Saturday.
“We were told we are dealing with a ‘serious emergency situation’. Injured are being moved to hospitals across Riyadh”, with many in critical condition, the source said.
The aviation authority said the number of injured from the attack was still being assessed, adding that airport “operations had been temporarily suspended pending the completion of an assessment of the damage and verification of the safety of the facilities”.
The Houthis have repeatedly attacked Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers after a truce in their long-running war with Yemen’s coalition government unravelled in July.
A source at a local hospital said five people were in intensive care there after being wounded at the airport, with “dozens of people injured” in all.
A relative of one wounded person said they had been hit in the shoulders and arms by shattered glass. Three witnesses confirmed people being evacuated from the airport.
Two doctors told AFP that several pilgrims headed to Makkah had been injured while waiting to board their flight.
A diplomatic source briefed on the matter told AFP the airport was hit by “a missile around 3:00pm” (5pm PKT).
“Houthis are attacking civilian targets. Riyadh airport is a civilian target,” the source said.
