Two huge car bombs exploded after militants tried to storm Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry and a security unit this evening in what appeared to be the latest brazen strike by al-Qaeda in the world's top oil exporter.
Security sources said the militants had tried to drive one of the cars into the vast, heavily fortified ministry compound in central Riyadh, but it exploded outside one of the gates.
Another explosives-laden vehicle tried to enter a centre for special emergency forces in the capital but was stopped at the gate before police opened fire and it blew up, the sources said.
The blasts - the first against a government building since April and the second major militant strike this month - sent global oil prices higher, with US crude futures ending up $1.93 at $43.70 a barrel.
Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki told state television there was no sign of "a large number of casualties" but did not give any more details.
"Both cars were rigged and both were attempted suicide bombings which failed," a Saudi security official said.
"They tried to penetrate the security cordon of the Ministry of Interior and were deterred ... The car exploded in the middle of the road and they never made it inside the compound."
Saudi state-owned Ikhbariya television showed a blown up taxi on the main road, with a dead body inside.
Shortly after, Saudi police raided a house in the capital and killed seven militants believed to be linked to the car bombs, a security source said.