Saudis deny compound clash

Saudi Arabia has been battling hard to crush militants

The Saudi Interior Ministry has denied reports that security guards clashed with gunmen at a Riyadh compound housing Western expatriates.

Security sources earlier said that gunmen exchanged fire with guards at the Kingdom City Compound and that four people had been detained.

"A security guard was suspicious and fired shots," a ministry statement said, "but he went there and found nothing."

Riyadh has seen a spate of bomb attacks on both foreigners and the government buildings.

The Kingdom City Compound is protected by the Saudi National Guard and houses both expatriates and Saudis.

The apartment complex is owned by al-Waleed bin Talal, the billionaire nephew of King Fahd.

Tensions have been high within the foreign community since an attack in the port of Yanbu on 1 May which left two Americans, two Britons, an Australian and a Canadian dead.

Suicide bomb attacks on foreign residential compounds in May and November of last year also claimed dozens of lives.