Eight people died when a gunman described as mentally unbalanced opened fire inside a mosque in a village north of the Yemeni capital during Friday prayers, an official told AFP. "A man opened fire on worshippers in a mosque in the village of Kahal" 100 kilometres north of Sanaa, killing eight people and wounding nine others, the official conveyed.
An earlier toll said five people died in the attack -- the second in a month on a mosque in Yemen -- and 12 injured, 10 seriously. However the official Saba news agency gave a lower death toll, saying seven people were killed in the attack and that of 11 people injured, three were in a serious condition. Eyewitnesses told Saba that "the criminal opened fire on the worshipers praying in the mosque's yard.
Saba identified the suspect as Abdullah Saleh Zaid al-Qahali, 24, and said that he had been arrested and was being questioned about the shooting. The official earlier said that the suspect "is believed to be mentally unbalanced." "It was apparently a lone gunman with a machinegun," a Yemeni official was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Earlier this month, 15 people were killed and dozens injured in the bombing of a mosque in the northern city of Saada.
