Remembrance Day attack in Saudi city wounds several

A blast at a World War One remembrance ceremony in Jeddah wounded several people yesterday, France said, urging its citizens living in Saudi Arabia to exercise maximum vigilance following what it called an attack using an explosive device. 

The explosion was the second security incident to take place in the Red Sea port city in the last couple of weeks, and the first attack with explosives in years to attempt to hit foreigners in the conservative kingdom.

France's Foreign Ministry said the attack had taken place at a ceremony in Jeddah involving foreign embassies. A Greek official told Reuters four people had been wounded.

"There was some sort of a blast at the non-Muslim cemetery in Jeddah. There are four slightly injured, among them one Greek," the Greek official told Reuters, declining to named.

The Makkah governorate said the attack caused two injuries - a Greek consulate employee and a Saudi guard.

A source with knowledge of the matter said the attack happened early yesterday when several diplomatic delegations from the European Union and other countries were present at a Remembrance Day event organised by the French Embassy.

On Oct 29 a Saudi man was arrested after attacking and wounding a security guard at the French consulate in Jeddah.

It followed the beheading earlier in October near Paris of a French school teacher by a man of Chechen origin who had said he wanted to punish the teacher for showing pupils cartoons of a topic deeply sensitive to Muslims in a civics lesson.

French officials have since reasserted the right to display the cartoons as a matter of free expression, stirring anger in parts of the Muslim world.