Saudi forces killed a gunman and arrested another after they opened fire on the Palace of Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz early on Saturday.

Saudi forces killed a gunman and arrested another after they opened fire on the Palace of Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz early on Saturday.

State news agency SANA said a deadly shooting occurred in Jeddah at 1:00 am (2200 GMT), without reporting if it took place near the residence of Prince Nayef.
"A man fired his weapon in Abd el-Rahman al-Maliki Avenue in Jeddah" before he "was killed," it said citing police, adding that "no citizens or members of the security forces were affected."

For its part, a government spokesman told AFP news agency: “two men opened fire after midnight on the Qasr Shateh residence of Prince Nayef (and) the security forces retaliated, killing one of them”.
The nature of the attack was "individual and isolated" and did not bear the hallmarks of any organization, the spokesman added in reference to the Al-Qaeda terror network.

The men, who were only identified as members of the Zahrani family, were "under the influence of drugs" and one of them had a "small handgun".

Prince Nayef, in his late 70s, is second in line to the Saudi throne and was appointed second deputy prime minister in 2009.
He has been interior minister since 1970.In August 2009, his son Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the Saudi deputy interior minister, narrowly survived a suicide bomb attack claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.