A former psychiatric patient entered Friday the main door of the hospital where he had received treatment and randomly opened fire with a submachine gun before proceeding to the office of his psychiatric nurse and shooting him dead. No other injuries were reported in the incident here at Al-Zahir Hospital around 2 A.M. Friday, Major Abdulmohsin Al-Maiman, spokersperson of Makkah police. He said the attacker was a Saudi man in his mid twenties. The killed nurse, also a Saudi, was in his thirties. Major Al-Maiman did not identify the attacker but said he was arrrested within hours near his home in Makkah. The attack weapon was found in the gunman's car found near the hospital. The gunman was a former patient of the hospital. Guards, staff and patients fled for cover when the gunfire began. The attacker then knocked g on the door of nurse Abdul Qader Saoud Al-Mahabi and gunned him down. Sources said that the gunman had been reported as missing three days earlier after stealing his brother's machine gun from his home in Riyadh, while the father of Al-Muhabi questioned how an armed person could have been allowed to enter the premises. A Health Affairs spokesman said the hospital was provided with ample security staff but that they were forced to take cover when the gunman opened “intense fire”. One colleague of 33-year-old Al-Muhabi described him as a “very conscientious and responsible member of staff during the entire eight years he worked here”, adding: “He died doing the work he loved.”
