British government confirms Briton killed in Saudi capital

The British Foreign Office confirmed on Thursday that a British man had been shot dead in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

His relatives had not yet been informed as further information was being sought, the Foreign Office said.

Earlier reports said the man had been identified as Edward Stuart Muirhead-Smith, an employee of the communications company Marconi.

Witnesses said two gunmen in a Toyota car fired four bullets at Muirhead-Smith as he walked toward his car at a shopping center car park in eastern Riyadh on Wednesday

Security sources were quoted as saying the shooting was linked to a wave of anti-Western attacks in Saudi Arabia by supporters of al-Qaida.

Several Britons are among the victims of recent attacks by militants in Saudi Arabia.

In May, two Britons were among six people shot dead by militants in an oil contractor's office in Yanbu, north of the Red Sea port of Jeddah. Another died in an attack on a housing complex in the eastern city of Khobar later in the month.

BBC correspondent Frank Gardner was shot and seriously wounded in a shooting in Riyadh in June. His Irish colleague, cameraman Simon Cumbers, was killed in the same attack.