The toy drone was shot down in khozama district, where royal palaces are located. — Reuters FILERIYADH: Saudi Arabian security forces shot down a toy drone in the capital Riyadh on Saturday, a senior Saudi official and the state news agency said, after videos were posted online showing gunfire in a neighbourhood where a royal palace is located.
A spokesman for the Riyadh police said forces at a checkpoint in the Khozama district identified the drone and "dealt with it according to their orders", state news said without specifying if there were any injuries or damage.
Earlier, wildly conflicting social media reports claimed that gunfire and explosions were fired close to the royal palace as part of an attempted coup.
A few reports also suggested that the king had been evacuated from his palace following the gunfire.
But a senior Saudi official said that King Salman bin Abdulaziz was not present inside the palace at the time of the drone incident.
"The king was at his farm in Diriya," the official said, naming another area of the capital.
Security around the royal palaces appears to have tightened in recent months as powerful Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman oversees landmark social and economic reforms to prepare for a post-oil era, despite the risk of riling religious hardliners.
Saudi Arabia is also embroiled in a long running conflict in its southern neighbour Yemen.
Last October, a gunman shot dead two Saudi guards and wounded three others at the gate of the royal palace in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, according to the interior ministry.
Royal guards killed the gunman, identified by the ministry as a 28-year-old Saudi national armed with a Kalashnikov and three grenades.
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