On a dusty industrial estate in eastern Riyadh, a family run company is busily manufacturing heavy duty security equipment designed to protect buildings that could be targeted by al Qaeda militants. The firm makes hydraulic road barriers of the type which US officials say probably forced gunmen who attacked the US consulate in Jeddah earlier this month to abandon their car and storm the complex on foot.
Managers say demand has soared for their products since suicide bombers hit three expatriate residential compounds in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, last May.
"We have installed 120 barriers since the bombings. Our order books are full and will be for quite some time to come," said Zuhair Dreza, a engineer at Al Yahya Industrial.
A British company which makes barriers and bomb-proof litter bins says it is fielding more calls from region.
"We're getting a lot of interest from Saudi Arabia and the Middle East," said Michael Hill of AMC Security Products. "It's a critical market at the moment and we really want to branch out into it more."
Some of the hydraulic barriers reach 20 metres (65 feet) high when fully raised from the ground and are designed to stop dead a 15 tonne vehicle travelling at 90 km an hour (55 mph).
"They are very effective at deterring militants from trying to ram their way into a building or complex," Dreza said.
Customers in the kingdom so far include embassies, oil companies, government offices and housing compounds for non-Saudi nationals. All have tightened security since the suicide bombings and shootings started in May 2003.
Many residential compounds in Riyadh, where several attacks have taken place, resemble fortified military installations with razor wire on perimeter walls, National Guards in armoured cars and sandbags piled around gatehouses.
Residents -- and potential attackers -- have to pass through three separate barriers. All cars are subject to searches and visitors are treated with suspicion. Banks and ministries are also ringed with concrete barriers and have sentry guards.
"It's unfortunate that we had to fit them to our building but safety is important," said an employee at the Ministry of Culture and Information."
In one corner of Al Yahya's noisy workshop a group of workmen solder a row of razor sharp tyre spikes. Elsewhere, men put the finishing touches to retractable steel bollards.
The firm is considering branching out to customising cars with armour plating, another market meeting growing demand.
"There's a lot of interest in our cars at the moment," said Nadeem Malik of Mohamed Yousef Naghi Motors in the west coast city of Jeddah.
The business sells BMWs, some costing up to two million riyals ($533,000), that can withstand a burst of machine gun fire and even a chemical attack.
Malik said most of his clients are members of the Saudi royal family and foreign diplomats, but this is changing. "Average members of the general public now want to buy these cars," he said.
Although business is good for now, Dreza looks forward to the day when the threat of Islamic militancy is lifted and his products can be put to more mundane use.
"We hope they'll be used to manage traffic," he said.
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