A Saudi citizen wounded a guard in a knife attack at the French consulate in Jeddah Thursday, officials said.

The assault follows another knife attack at a church in the French city of Nice that left three people dead and several others wounded.

“The assailant was apprehended by Saudi security forces immediately after the attack. The guard was taken to hospital and his life is not in danger,” the French embassy said in a statement.

Police in Mecca province, where Jeddah is situated, said the attacker was a Saudi, but it did not give the nationality of the guard, who they said had sustained minor injuries.

The French embassy in Riyadh strongly condemned the attack and urged its nationals in Saudi Arabia to exercise “extreme vigilance”.

Neither the Saudi authorities nor the French embassy gave any indication of the motivation for the attack.

But it comes as France faces growing anger over satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), with President Emmanuel Macron vigorously defending the publication by the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Source: AFP