A Frenchman was shot dead in the Red Sea city of Jeddah early on Sunday in what Saudi officials said was a "terrorist attack," the second shooting of a Westerner in the oil-rich kingdom in 10 days.
"We can say through the preliminary investigation that it is a terrorist attack," interior ministry spokesman Mansur al-Turki told AFP.
The victim worked for the French defence electronics firm Thales which confirmed his death and identity as Laurent Barbot, 45, from western France.
Thales said it did not know why the technical assistant, who was one of 250 employees with the group working in Saudi Arabia, had been killed.
"We have no details about this abominable attack," Thales chief Jean-Paul Perrier told AFP in Paris. "We don't know if it was random or a premeditated attack."