Teacher opens fire on colleagues, kills six people in Saudi Arabia

A teacher in Saudi Arabia has opened fire on colleagues, killing at least six people and wounding two, state television reported.

The brief reports on the state television channel’s website and Twitter account quoted a police spokesman and said the suspected shooter was in custody.

State TV posted a photograph that showed ambulances gathered outside the education department building where the shooting took place in Jazan province.

Mass shootings are rare in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia has faced a series of recent attacks by Islamic State militants.

Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition of countries conducting air strikes and ground operations in neighbouring Yemen in support of the deeply impoverished country’s internationally recognised government. It is fighting against Iranian-backed Shiite rebels and supporters of a former president, who control the capital and other parts of the country.

Jazan, on the kingdom’s southern border with Yemen, has been targeted by missiles and cross-border fire since Saudi Arabia intervened in the conflict.

On Tuesday, authorities said they shot down a ballistic missile targeting the city and that a police officer in the surrounding province was killed in a separate shooting incident.

In October, two people were killed and another two were wounded when a gunman opened fire inside a bank in the city of Jazan.