Riyadh airport hit again: 1 Indian dead, 11 injured

A second strike in 24 hours

Sunday afternoon, Riyadh's airport was hit again. An unidentified projectile struck Terminal 4 at King Khalid International Airport and started a fire, Saudi civil aviation authorities said. One person was killed. Eleven were injured.

The dead man was a Pakistani national, according to India Strategic, citing the General Authority of Civil Aviation. That detail comes from a single outlet, and Saudi authorities have not published a full nationality list for Sunday's victims.

The strike landed barely a day after Saturday's attack, the deadliest on Saudi soil in more than a decade. Saudi authorities first put the toll at 12 dead and 309 injured. It rose to 13 after an Indian national died of his injuries, the Indian Embassy in Riyadh confirmed. The dead included four Saudis, two Bangladeshis, a US citizen, and nationals of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Sudan, according to India Strategic.

The Indian who did not make it home

Mohammed Yousuf was 46, an IT professional from Hyderabad's Mehdipatnam. He had been at the airport with his wife and three children when the projectile struck the premises. He took serious injuries and died, Organiser reported, citing the Indian Embassy. His wife, their two sons and their daughter were also injured and are receiving treatment at a hospital in Riyadh.

Eleven Indians were injured in total, the embassy said. Three remain in intensive care but are stable. Two are in regular hospital wards. The rest have been discharged. Embassy officials visited every hospital where injured Indians were admitted and are in touch with Saudi authorities and hospital officials, according to the embassy's updates on X.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar expressed grief over the death and said the embassy was doing everything necessary in the situation. The Ministry of External Affairs strongly condemned the attacks, saying: "The repeated attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are completely unacceptable and must cease immediately." The ministry conveyed condolences to the bereaved families and reiterated India's solidarity with Saudi Arabia.

The embassy has opened a 24/7 toll-free helpline at 8002471234 for those inside Saudi Arabia, plus +966-11-488469 and a WhatsApp line at +966-536216082, according to its posts.

What the cameras captured

Saudi state television released CCTV footage from the Saturday strike, and it spread fast online. Travellers, including Umrah pilgrims preparing to board, are seen waiting near a gate area when a bright orange flash erupts. People scatter. Parts of the terminal roof appear to cave in.

The footage has been shared millions of times. An Independent Persian compilation of the CCTV clips drew 31,000 likes and 3,400 comments on Instagram. An Al Jazeera report on the chaos inside the terminal crossed 17,000 likes on Facebook.

Saudi air defences did intercept some of what was fired. On Sunday, the kingdom intercepted a cruise missile near the airport, a drone in the Eastern Province and a ballistic missile launched toward Khamis Mushait, officials said.

A week of fire

The airport has now been hit repeatedly in a single week. Here is the chronology as reported:

Day	What was reported
Thursday, Oct 8	Strikes on Riyadh airport and Abha airport; three Saudis killed, including a Saudia pilot; a commercial plane parked on the tarmac badly damaged (India Strategic)
Saturday, Oct 10	Deadliest strike on Saudi soil in over a decade; 12 dead and 309 injured per the civil aviation authority, toll rising to 13 after an Indian national's death
Sunday, Oct 11	Unidentified projectile hit Terminal 4, starting a fire; one killed and 11 injured; cruise missile intercepted near the airport; Dammam's King Fahd airport also targeted

Outlets do not count this week's attacks the same way, so the totals differ. The Financial Express, citing Reuters, counts four strikes in the week with a combined death toll of 18. India Strategic calls Sunday the third Houthi attack on the airport this week. Neither figure has been reconciled, and Saudi authorities have not released an official week-long tally.

Why the Houthis say they are doing this

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed responsibility for the October 10 strike. The Houthi-run Saba news agency claimed four missile and drone operations in total, naming Riyadh airport, the Shugadam gas facility, the Tanajib oil refinery in the Eastern Province and Dammam airport as targets.

Those energy-target claims come only from the Houthis. Saudi authorities have not confirmed strikes on Aramco facilities, and no independent reporting has verified them. Treat them as the group's claims, not facts.

The Houthis say the campaign is retaliation for Saudi military operations and air strikes in Yemen, including what they describe as a Saudi strike on the airport in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital the group controls. Saudi Arabia has not commented on that claim.

The group has warned airlines, airport workers and travellers against using Saudi airports, calling them "a theatre of operations for our forces." Its one exemption: the airports serving the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Its stated demand is that Saudi Arabia halt its military operations and interference in Yemen.

An airport that is shut

Riyadh's main airport is closed. The civil aviation authority said operations were temporarily suspended pending damage and safety assessments. It gave no date for reopening.

The scale of the disruption is enormous. Flight tracking site Flightradar24 listed 535 cancellations at Riyadh on Sunday, 78 percent of scheduled flights, and 74 cancellations at Dammam, 32 percent. Aviation analytics firm Cirium said 99.7 percent of Riyadh's scheduled flights were cancelled on Sunday, with about 60 percent expected to be cancelled on Monday as well.

Airlines are pulling back across the board. Air India has suspended Riyadh flights until October 15 and Air India Express until October 14, officials told PTI. Air India Express operates 16 weekly flights to Riyadh from Bengaluru, Kochi, Kannur and Kozhikode; Air India has seven weekly flights from Delhi and Mumbai. Both airlines had earlier cancelled services till October 10, and are offering full refunds on the new cancellations.

IndiGo's cancellations ran till October 9 and Akasa Air's till October 11, The Week reported. Beyond India: Lufthansa has cancelled Riyadh flights until October 16, Air France-KLM extended its suspension till the end of the month, flydubai till October 14 and Etihad has cancelled Abu Dhabi flights to Dammam, Jeddah and Riyadh for October 12 and 13.

Kerala's airports are feeling it directly. Cochin airport officials told PTI that 10 flight services were cancelled between October 11 and 13, including five by Akasa Air. At Calicut airport, three Sunday services were cancelled: a Saudia flight, a Flynas flight to Riyadh and an Air India Express service.

The world reacts

The condemnations have come quickly. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the Saturday strike and said attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure violate international law. "These attacks must cease immediately," he said.

The Saudi-led anti-Houthi coalition called the attack a "full-fledged war crime" and vowed to respond decisively. US President Donald Trump said Washington is weighing joining the fight against the Houthis.

Governments are now steering their citizens away. The US Mission in Saudi Arabia issued a security alert saying it was aware of the Sunday attacks on Riyadh and Dammam airports, urging "extreme caution" at all major Saudi airports. The FAA has told US airlines to exercise caution flying to or over Saudi Arabia through December 10. Britain has advised its citizens against all but essential travel to Saudi airports. Europe's aviation safety agency EASA expanded its Saudi airspace warning, noting the attacks create "an increased risk of misidentification of civil aircraft."

What to watch

Nobody knows when Riyadh airport reopens. The civil aviation authority has not named a date, and airlines may extend their suspensions further into October. Watch for updates from Air India and Air India Express if you hold a ticket; full refunds are on offer, and Air India Express is providing free rescheduling.

The bigger question is military. Trump weighing direct US involvement could turn a Saudi-Yemen war back into a regional one. The Houthis, meanwhile, say worse is coming unless Riyadh halts its strikes. On the ground in Riyadh, schools have moved to remote learning through Thursday, even as the WPC Energy Congress goes ahead at a convention centre about 10 km from the airport.

📷 Photo: DearEdward, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)