Two Saudi guards were shot dead and three others injured on Saturday morning after a man drove up to the gate of the royal palace in Jeddah and began shooting, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by state news.

The Saudi Press Agency quoted the security spokesman for the Interior Ministry as saying that at around 3:25 a.m. on Friday the perpetrator disembarked from a vehicle and opened fire on the western gate of the palace, killing two Guard members and wounding three others. The gunman was shot dead on the spot, according to the SPA report.

The ministry identified the attacker as Mansour bin Hassan bin Ali bin Al Fahid al-Amri, a 28-year-old Saudi national, the report said, adding that he was carrying Kalashnikov rifles and three Molotov cocktails. It said the investigation is ongoing.