Two people wounded in attack on WW1 ceremony in Saudi Arabia

Two people have been wounded after an improvised explosive device targeted a ceremony of French, American, British, Italian and Greek officials commemorating the end of the First World War at a cemeter y in the Saudi cit y of Jiddah, according to official statements.

The ceremony was held at a cemeter y for non-muslim dead, French Foreign Ministry officials said.

"Such attacks on innocent people are shameful and entirely without justification," said a joint statement issued by the embassies of the five countries in attendance. The group also acknowledged the work of Saudi emergency services at the scene.

Hours after the attack, Saudi state-media quoted a local official acknowledging the attack and saying that a Greek consulate employee and Saudi security man were lightly wounded in the incident. The Saudi official said an investigation is underway.

S audi state television also broadcast from outside the cemetery and stressed that the security situation was "stable".

Wednesday's attack follows on the heels of a stabbing on October 29 that lightly wounded a guard at the French consulate in the same city. The stabbing was carried out by a Saudi man, who was arrested, and his motives remain unclear.

France has suffered two deadly attacks by foreign-born Muslims in the past month.

A teacher was beheaded outside Paris for showing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed to his class for a debate on free expression, and three people were later killed in a church in Nice.

The depictions of the prophet sparked protests and calls for boycotts of French products among some Muslims in the Middle East and Asia.

France has urged its citizens in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim-majority countries to be "on maximum alert" amid the heightened tensions.

Nadia Chaaya, an official who represents French citizens living in Saudi Arabia, was at the ceremony when it came under attack.

She told The Associated Press there were about 20 people of different nationalities in attendance, making it difficult to say whether French diplomats were specifically targeted.

She earlier told the French news channel BFM about the moment she heard an explosion as the consul general was near the end of his speech.

"At that moment we didn't really understand, but we felt that we were the target because directly we saw the smoke and we were of course in panic mode," she said. "We tried to understand, and we were most of all afraid to see if there was going to be a second wave." French president Emmanuel Macron has come under particular scrutiny among some Muslim leaders for his description of the caricatures of Prophet Mohammed as a protected cornerstone of free speech and France's secular ideals.

This has riled some Muslims who view the depictions as blasphemous and a form of hate speech.

Saudi Arabia's monarch and top clerics are among those who have condemned the depictions, but top Saudi clerics have also called for calm and urged people to follow the prophet's example of "mercy, justice, tolerance".