The Government is tonight investigating claims one of its citizens had been killed in Saudi Arabia.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said staff at the Irish embassy in Riyadh were looking into reports that an Irish man had been killed in his office in the Saudi capital.
Al-Arabiya satellite television reported the killing but gave no more information, while Saudi officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
Westerners have been the targets of shootings, suicide bombings and kidnappings in the kingdom in recent months in attacks that are seen as an attempt to undermine the economy, which depends heavily on expatriate labour.
The attacks have been blamed on groups allied to al-Qaida, the terror group led by Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden.
Al-Qaida aspires to topple the Saudi royal family and replace it with an Islamic government.