Man arrested after stabbing guard at French Consulate in Saudi

DUBAI - A Saudi man stabbed and slightly wounded a guard at the French Consulate in the city of Jeddah on Thursday, state media in the kingdom reported.

The Saudi Press Agency offered no immediate motive for the attack in the Red Sea port city. However, it comes amid heightened tensions after an assailant decapitated a French middle school teacher who showed caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed for a class on free speech. Those caricatures were published by Charlie Hebdo and cited by the men who gunned down the newspaper’s editorial meeting in 2015.

The Saudi Press Agency report, citing police spokesman Major Mohammed al-Ghamdi, said the special force for diplomatic security was able to arrest the Saudi man. He is said to be in his 40s. The guard was taken to a hospital for treatment, the agency said.

The report did not elaborate.

In France on Thursday, authorities said an attacker armed with a knife killed three people at a church in the city of Nice. It wasn't immediately clear if that attack or the one in Jeddah involved the current controversy, which has seen protests across the Muslim world.