A policeman has been killed during an upsurge of violence in eastern Saudi Arabia, AFP reported Wednesday (March 15th).
Gunfire broke out at about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday when police tried to stop a suspicious car near the central hospital in Qatif, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Someone in the car started shooting, mortally wounding one of the officers, it said.
The policeman's colleagues stopped the suspects' car, but they escaped "while shooting randomly" and then stole the car of a doctor to make their getaway, the ministry added.
Police found Molotov cocktails in the suspects' abandoned vehicle, which also had been stolen.
The dead policeman is the second Qatif officer shot dead in just over a week, with the other gunned down on March 7th as he tried to leave a Qatif police station in his personal car.
