DHAKA: Clashes among foreign workers, Saudi residents and security forces in a Riyadh neighbourhood killed two people and wounded 68 as Saudi Arabia pushes a tough countrywide crackdown on improperly documented foreign labourers.

Riyadh police said early Sunday, reports gulfnews.com.

Police arrested 561 people in the violence in the Manfouha neighbourhood, according to a pre-dawn statement from Riyadh police carried by the state news agency.

The dead were one Saudi and another, unidentified person, the statement said.

The police statement described ‘instigators’ roaming Manfouha, throwing stones at Saudi residents of the neighbourhood and others and threatening people with knives.

A video purportedly taken in Manfouha and posted on social media overnight showed noisy, angry crowds in the street and blood-stained men.

In the video, men who appeared to be Saudis used crude clubs on dark-skinned men, pummelling one man as he curled on the ground.

Manfouha is a neighbourhood of shops and homes with both Saudis and foreign workers from Ethiopia and elsewhere.

BDST: 1353 HRS, NOV 10, 2013
RoR/BSK