BBC's Riyadh reporter in coma

2004-06-07 14:30

Riyadh - BBC correspondent Frank Gardner lay in a coma in critical condition in a Saudi hospital on Monday after suspected Islamic militants shot him and killed his Irish cameraman, doctors said.

"He is in a coma and very critical," one doctor said, adding however that bleeding had stopped and "he has improved in the last six hours".

Briton Gardner, aged 42, was hit by many bullets to the stomach and feet and transferred to the King Faisal Specialist Hospital after undergoing emergency surgery at the capital's Al-Iman Hospital.

"Frank is in a critical but stable condition in intensive care after surgery," a British embassy spokesperson told reporters earlier Monday.

He came under fire on Sunday evening along with Irish cameraman Simon Cumbers on a street outside the home of a top wanted militant in a slum area of southern Riyadh known as a hotbed of hardliners.

Minder escaped unhurt

In line with local practice, the pair were accompanied to the al-Suwaidi district by a "minder" and a driver from the Saudi information ministry who escaped unhurt, a police officer said.

Both men were now under investigation, the officer added.

The four-wheel-drive vehicle was from the ministry and the two employees in the front seats, he said.

The deadly attack came barely a week after gunmen killed 22 people, including several westerners, in a hostage-taking drama in the eastern oil city of Al-Khobar.

Gardner was the BBC security correspondent and al-Qaeda expert reporting on the war on terror.

The extremists' campaign, which has left more than 85 people dead and hundreds injured in Saudi Arabia since May 2003, is blamed on al-Qaeda militants.

Cumbers, 36, was "a freelance journalist and cameraman who has worked throughout the world filming international news stories for the BBC and for (other) news organisations," the corporation said.

Gardner, a fluent Arabic speaker with a degree in Arab and Islamic Studies, was reported to be carrying a small copy of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, in his pocket when he came under fire near the home of Ibrahim al-Rayyes, a terror suspect killed in a clash with security forces in the area last December.

Rayyes was on a list of 26 most-wanted suspects which has gone down to 18 since it was issued by authorities in December.

- AFP