Teacher kills six colleagues in Saudi Arabia shooting

Saudi state TV quoted an unnamed police spokesman saying the suspected shooter was in custody.

RIYADH // A teacher in southern Saudi Arabia opened fire on colleagues Thursday, killing at least six people and wounding two, state television reported.

The brief reports on the state television channel’s website and Twitter account did not elaborate or offer a reason for the shooting at an education department building. It quoted an unnamed police spokesman for the information and said the suspected shooter was in custody.

The Saudi Press Agency did not immediately report the shooting.

State TV posted a still photograph that showed ambulances gathered outside the building where the shooting took place in Jizan province.

Mass shootings are rare in the kingdom, though Saudi Arabia has faced a series of recent attacks by ISIL militants.

Jizan, on the kingdom’s southern border with Yemen, has been targeted by missiles and cross-border fire from Houthi rebels. On Tuesday, authorities said they shot down a ballistic missile targeting the city and that a police officer in the surrounding province was killed in a separate shooting incident.

In October, two people were killed and another two were wounded when a gunman opened fire inside a bank in the city of Jizan.

* Associated Press