Riyadh airport suspends operations after attack: Saudi aviation authority
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Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) announced Saturday that King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh was targeted in an attack.
Operations have been temporarily suspended while authorities assess damage and verify the safety of facilities, according to the statement.
The statement, which did not say who was behind the attack, comes after a Houthi missile attack reportedly directly hit Terminal 3, causing a number of injuries, according to sources cited by AFP and AP.
#بيان بشأن استهداف مطار الملك خالد الدولي بالرياض، وتعليق العمليات التشغيلية مؤقتًا. #الطيران_المدني https://t.co/T4NM0WeEQA
— هيئة الطيران المدني (@ksagaca) October 10, 2026
“The attack caused a number of injuries, which officials are still tallying,” GACA said in an official statement.
Houthi strike
Yemen’s Houthis struck Riyadh’s international airport with a missile on Saturday, a diplomatic source told Agence France-Presse (AFP), as witnesses reported an evacuation and a hospital source said dozens of people were injured.
“Houthis are attacking civilian targets. Riyadh airport is a civilian target,” the diplomatic source told AFP, saying they had been briefed on the matter.
Three witnesses told AFP that people were being evacuated from the airport.
One witness reported hearing an explosion while waiting to board a flight, while the other two could not confirm what had triggered the evacuation.
Authorities urged passengers to check their flight status before heading to the airport.
A source at a hospital in the Saudi capital told AFP that dozens of people had been injured, most of them Saudi nationals.
At least five injured Saudi nationals were being treated in intensive care, the source said, adding that some patients had been transported by helicopter.
The Canadian, German and Spanish embassies in Saudi Arabia warned their citizens on Saturday to avoid Riyadh’s international airport following reports of an attack.
Spain’s embassy issued a warning on X referring to a “new attack” on the airport.
