Frenchman shot and killed in Saudi Arabia ‘terrorist attack’

A FRENCHMAN was shot dead in the Red Sea city of Jeddah yesterday in what Saudi officials said was a “terrorist attack”, the second shooting of a Westerner in the oil-rich kingdom in 10 days.

“We can say through the preliminary investigation that it is a terrorist attack,” interior ministry spokesman Mansur al-Turki said.

Sources in the kingdom’s French community identified the victim as Laurent Barbot, employed with French defence electronics company Thales, which is working on a military project in Jeddah and the eastern industrial city of Jubail.