50 feared dead in Saudi blasts

Up to 50 people were feared dead today after terrorists launched a wave of suicide bomb attacks on Western targets in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, on a scheduled visit to the country, said ten Americans were killed in the strikes on three residential compounds.

There was also “large loss of life of others”, he said.

A Danish doctor working in Riyadh said there were 40-50 dead at one hospital alone.

And a US official said overall casualties appeared to be in the hundreds and that several members of the Saudi national guard died in the attacks.

He also said British, German, French, Australian and other Arab citizens were among the casualties.

Officials in Australia said a 39-year-old Australian man working for a computer company was among the dead.

The Foreign Office in London said it had information that five Britons had been injured but not seriously.

The string of attacks occurred in quick succession late last night, capped by a fourth explosion early today outside the headquarters of a joint US-Saudi owned company in Riyadh.

Gunmen in cars shot their way into three residential compounds for foreign workers before setting off explosives in the vehicles, a Saudi official said.

A guard at one of the compounds said seven cars, all apparently carrying suicide bombers, exploded there.