Missile Impact Reported at Riyadh Airport Terminal 3 as Passengers Evacuate
Witnesses described injured people inside King Khalid airport after another blast, two days after a separate attack killed three Saudis.
A missile directly hit Terminal 3 at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on October 10, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing Saudi officials. Reuters separately reported multiple wounded people and evacuations after a blast at the airport, as airlines cancelled or diverted flights.
The latest incident struck a major passenger hub already disrupted by attacks earlier in the week. Initial reports established injuries and a response by emergency services, but did not provide a reliable total of people killed or wounded.
Terminal 3, not a confirmed gate number
The Journal’s report identified Terminal 3 as the location of the impact and said it was evacuated. Xinhua also reported an explosion at Terminal 3, followed by briefly visible smoke and the evacuation of passengers. No reliable reporting identified a particular gate number.
Reuters cited two eyewitnesses and two sources briefed on the incident. One witness described injured people lying inside the airport, while the agency reported more than a dozen ambulances heading toward the facility. The accounts conveyed the urgency of the response without establishing a final medical assessment.
Roya subsequently reported that Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority had announced a temporary suspension of airport operations following an attack, with injuries and a damage assessment. A suspension for safety checks does not by itself establish the extent of structural damage.
What the casualty reports establish
There was no confirmed death toll for the October 10 incident in the initial accounts. Claims of a mass casualty event circulating beyond those reports remained unverified. Descriptions of multiple injured people cannot be converted into an unsupported number of fatalities.
Saudi authorities had reported three deaths from the October 8 attacks, including a Saudia employee. Those deaths occurred two days earlier and must be kept separate from the new incident. The distinction also matters when photographs or reports from the two dates are circulated together.
Flight disruption and the Houthi threat
Reuters reported diversions and cancellations among Riyadh bound flights. Kuwait Airways said the airport’s security situation had led it to cancel services. The airport told passengers to contact their airlines and confirm flight status before setting out.
The Iran backed Houthis claimed earlier attacks on Saudi aviation, but AFP said they had not issued a fresh claim when it reported the October 10 explosion. The latest incident’s attribution therefore rested on the accounts of officials and diplomatic sources rather than a contemporaneous public claim from the movement.
The immediate task for travellers was practical: obtain current information from the airline and airport rather than rely on earlier reopening reports. For Saudi authorities, the security challenge extended beyond restoring departures to protecting passenger facilities from further attacks.
