Ex-worker kills two staff at Saudi school

RIYADH: A “disgruntled” exemployee of a Saudi private school shot dead two staff members and injured a third on Wednesday, the school’s chairman said, but no children were present.

Most schools in Saudi Arabia are on holiday. The rare shooting happened at Kingdom School, which is owned by billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

Police were hunting a suspect of Iraqi origin, a security source said, describing the suspect as a teacher.

The man “who was dismissed from the school four years ago on the basis of anger issues and an unstable personality” opened fire at the administration offices, Talal al Maiman, the school chairman, said in a statement.

Maiman gave no further details of the victims or suspect but called the gunman “disgruntled”.

The security source identified the victims as a Saudi and a person of Palestinian heritage.

“A teacher took a gun and then he went to the school room and he killed the assistant school principal and one of the employees,” said the source. Investigators were treating the case as a criminal matter and “not a terrorist incident,” the source said. Saudi media spoke of “disagreements” between the suspect and victims.

“There has been a shooting at Kingdom School in Riyadh,” the US embassy said in a Twitter post, urging people to avoid the area. “School (is) closed, no children present,” it added.

The school, which has several buildings, opened in 2000 and offers boys’ and girls’ education from kindergarten to high school, according to its website. — AFP