Houthi strikes on Riyadh airport spark panic, leaving passengers injured and travellers stranded as Saudi Arabia faces escalating attacks and security fears
RIYADH: The explosion was followed by a violent tremor that shook Riyadh airport, sending terrified passengers scrambling for safety as panic and chaos swept through the terminals.
“I heard a very loud noise, so loud that I felt the airport shake,” a 32-year-old Riyadh resident told AFP a day after the deadly strike that Saudi Arabia blamed on the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.
“The airport alarm sirens went off, and that’s when the panic started.”
People spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity due to the harsh measures Saudi authorities have threatened against those who speak out about strikes.
“People who were in Terminal 3 started running towards us. Some had blood covering their faces,” recounted the 32-year-old.
“Some had lost a hand or an arm. People were running while carrying injured people, covered in blood.”
“My blood ran cold. I didn’t know where to go or what to do.”
Security personnel escorted him and other passengers to a lower floor, where they waited for an hour before being allowed to leave the scene.
A Saudi military spokesman called the attack a “full-fledged war crime”.
The deadly strike was the second in three days, following waves of Houthi attacks targeting Saudi airports, energy installations and oil tankers after a years-long truce between the two sides collapsed in July.
At Riyadh hospitals, the health ministry activated emergency protocols to handle a mass-casualty event, with doctors ordered to report to medical facilities across the capital.
“The numbers were far higher than anything I had ever seen here before,” one doctor in Riyadh told AFP, saying some religious pilgrims bound for Mecca arrived with their white shrouds stained with blood.
“Patients had severe limb injuries and shards of glass embedded in their faces and eyes,” he added.
“At least four people suffered severe nervous breakdowns.”
‘I want to leave’
Saudi authorities have remained largely silent about the scale and breadth of Houthi attacks during the past three months, leaving some residents worried about what may come next.
Warning text messages that once alerted residents to incoming barrages have fallen silent in recent weeks.
“I want to leave from here,” one exasperated Riyadh resident told AFP.
“I understand they do not want to cause panic but talk to us. Communication channels will make us feel comfortable.”
Others have sworn off travelling through the kingdom altogether after getting caught in the crossfire.
“I am never flying through Saudi Arabia again,” said an Indian national whose transit flight to Riyadh was diverted and forced to land in Dammam.
There, he and his wife and young child slept in the terminal and said they were given no information by their airline and lost their luggage.
“We spent the night at the airport — on the floor and chairs,” he added. “Not just us, there were at least one dozen other people around me from the same flight who kept waiting through the night.”
Another traveller was mid-air on a trip to Riyadh when the plane abruptly headed back for Jeddah, triggering dread among some passengers.
“We panicked,” the 39-year-old said.
Asked if she would travel again by plane in the kingdom while the war continued to rage, she was unequivocal.
“Never. I will never live this horror again.”