A Briton died and his wife was slightly injured by a suspected car bomb in the central shopping district of the Saudi capital on Friday, police said.
"It is suspected to have been an explosive charge that was in the car," Riyadh police chief Abdullah Al-Shaharani told the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
Witnesses at the scene told AFP the man lost a leg and an arm in the blast but was pulled alive from the four-wheel drive vehicle.
Shaharani said the dead man was a British expatriate working for a private company in the kingdom and that he died in hospital from severe injuries.
His wife was released from the hospital after treatment.
Hospital sources named the couple as Christopher Rodway, 47 and wife Jane, 50.
A senior Saudi official told AFP the blast was not linked to the opening Friday in the Saudi capital of a major oil forum attended by 400 delegates, many of them government ministers.
"It seems to be a personal affair," said the official, who refused to be named.
The explosive appeared to have been small and had not blown out windows in nearby buildings. Only the left-hand side of the car was badly damaged, an AFP correspondent saw.
In London a Foreign Office spokeswoman said the man's wife was now staying with friends. She said the couple, believed to be in their 40s, had been living in Riyadh for several years.
An inquiry was underway into the explosion, which took place at 1:20 pm (1120 GMT) and scattered debris over Al-Aroba street, police said.
The security services evacuated two buildings along the road, near the junction with Olaya Street, a main thoroughfare, and carried out a search.
Police closed off surrounding roads, and officers meticulously gathered up pieces of debris scattered over a wide area.
The US and British energy secretaries are among those attending the 7th International Energy Forum, which promotes understanding between oil producers and consumers.
At the same time, US Defense Secretary William Cohen is in the region on a week-long tour and was last reported to have been in neighboring Oman on Thursday.
He is due to travel to Saudi Arabia, but the details of his itinerary are being kept secret for security reasons.
Cohen was to hold talks in the region on terrorism, following the October 12 bombing of the US destroyer Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden that killed 17 sailors, on the Israel-Palestinian conflict and on US efforts to keep Iraq isolated, Pentagon officials said – RIYADH (AFP)
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