Five killed as gunmen mow down oil workers
Two Britons were feared dead today after gunmen opened fire indiscriminately on staff at an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia, a company official said.
The pair were among five workers killed by the attackers who burst into offices at the complex co-owned by Exxon Mobil and the Saudi company SABIC in the port city of Yanbu on the Red Sea coast, north of Jeddah.
At least two American engineers, one Australian and two Britons died in the shooting, said Bjorn Edlund, spokesman for the oil services company Asea Brown Boveri (ABB).
All the dead, apart from one Briton, who was a subcontractor, were employed by the company. A member of the Saudi national guard was also killed in the attacks.
A British Foreign Office spokeswoman said Britain’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Sherard Cowper-Coles, was heading to the scene from the capital Riyadh while consular staff were also travelling to the location.
The Foreign Office has yet to confirm that two Britons were killed in the attack.
