RIYADH, July 15: Petrol bombs were thrown during the night by unknown attackers at a parking lot of a Saudi Arabian court in the country’s unrest-hit east, an official and witnesses said on Sunday.

They said the bombs were thrown in the parking lot outside the compound of the court in Qatif district, setting the plastic shades that covered the area on fire.

“The shades of the parking lot outside the court caught fire,” said a civil defence official in Eastern Province as videos posted on social networking websites showed the blaze.

Attacks on Saudi government facilities in Qatif have increased after the deaths of two protesters during clashes with the police there last week. On Friday, the interior ministry announced that a gunman was killed during an attack on a police station and four Saudi policemen were wounded in a separate assault on their patrols in the same region.—AFP