Eight members of the same family who were killed on Thursday night in a traffic crash were Saudi nationals, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs said this morning.
Initial reports from Saudi Arabia stated the dead and at least two injured were Emirati. Independent verification of the deaths was unavailable yesterday.
A tweet from the Foreign Ministry this morning said: “The Foreign Ministry asserts that [the] Abha city accident which caused the death of eight people from the same family involved a Saudi, not an Emirati, family.”
The accident happened near the oasis town of Al Aflaj, according to the Saudi news website Al Weeam. However, the Saudi newspaper Okaz reported that five children, not two, sustained minor to moderate injuries in the crash, adding that funeral prayer had been held in honour of the deceased.
newsdesk@thenational.ae