Teacher Shoots Dead at Least Six Colleagues in Southern Saudi Arabia
The shooter, who opened fire at an education department building, has been taken into custody.
A teacher in southern Saudi Arabia opened fire on colleagues Thursday, killing at least six people and wounding two, state television reported.
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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 state-run 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 Jazan province.
Mass shootings are rare in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia has faced a series of recent attacks by Islamic State militants.
Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition of countries conducting airstrikes and ground operations in neighboring Yemen in support of the deeply impoverished country's internationally recognized government. It is fighting against Iranian-backed Shiite rebels and supporters of a former president, who control the capital and other parts of the country.
Jazan, on the kingdom's southern border with Yemen, has been targeted by missiles and cross-border fire since Saudi Arabia intervened in the conflict. 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 Jazan.