Saudi police arrested an apparently “mentally disturbed” man who tried to set himself on fire at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, a police spokesman said on Tuesday 7/2.
The man, a Saudi citizen in his 40s, “poured petrol on himself and tried to set it alight”, said Major Sameh Al Salami, police spokesman at the Grand Mosque, Islam’s holiest site. “His behaviour gives the impression that he is mentally disturbed.”
Pilgrims and police escorted the man away before he could light the petrol, footage posted on social media showed.
Witnesses said that the man also tried to set fire to the kiswah, the black-and-gold silk curtain that covers the Kaaba, but the police categorically denied because everyone knows that no one can damage the Kaaba.
Source: The National