A gunman has shot dead five people at a Shi'ite gathering in eastern Saudi Arabia.
A group claiming affiliation with the so-called Islamic State Sunni extremists said it carried out the attack.
"As result of his shooting, five citizens ... were killed, including a woman. Nine others were wounded," an interior ministry spokesman said in a statement today.
He said a suspect with an automatic weapon "started to shoot randomly" at Al-Haidaria hussainiya in the Saihat area of Qatif city on Friday evening.
Police intervened and opened fire, killing the suspect, the spokesman said without giving details about the attacker.
A group calling itself Islamic State-Bahrain State said in a statement that one of its "soldiers", Shughaa al-Dosari, "attacked a Shi'ite infidel temple with an automatic weapon" in Saihat.
It warned that "infidels will not be safe in the island of Mohammed".
AFP
