A gunman holding three laborers hostage in the Saudi capital Riyadh shot dead a member of the security forces when police tried to free the captives, police said on Monday.
The gunman was later arrested and the three laborers were freed, a police statement on Sunday's incident said. There was no immediate word on the man's identity or his motivation.
"An unknown man carrying an automatic weapon took three laborers hostage near al-Hamoud mosque ... and threatened to shoot passersby," state news agency SPA quoted a Riyadh police spokesman as saying in a statement.
"When police surrounded him and asked him to drop his weapon he opened fire heavily," the statement said. The security forces member was killed in an exchange of fire and two people, including a civilian, were wounded, he said.
The attacker was wounded and arrested, the police spokesman said.
Saudi officials have said this year they are concerned about a rise in domestic Islamist militancy due to conflicts in Iraq and Syria. The government has decreed tough penalties for “terrorist” crimes.
Earlier on Sunday, police reported that an unidentified attacker killed a member of Saudi Arabia's security forces in the country’s Eastern Province.
Officers "came under fire from an unknown gunman firing from the farms" near the village of Awamiya, killing one soldier, the Saudi Press Agency said.
A manhunt was underway, it added.
Awamiya, just west of Dammam city on the Gulf coast, has witnessed clashes between security forces and protesters in the past.
In February, a firefight in Awamiya left two policemen and two others dead. Other shootings have occurred there in subsequent months.
Most of Saudi Arabia's Shia minority live in the oil-rich east, and many complain of marginalization.
Since 2011, protests and sporadic attacks on security forces have occurred in Shia-majority areas, leaving around 20 youth dead.
Activists say several death sentences have also been handed down by courts in the kingdom since the demonstrations began.
Saudi judges have this year passed death sentences down to five pro-democracy advocates, including prominent activist and cleric Nimr al-Nimr, for their part in protests.
