In Mecca on Saturday an immigrant man committed suicide by jumping from the top of the Grand Mosque, Saudi police said on Saturday.
“A foreigner threw himself from the roof of the Grand Mosque in Mecca” to the courtyard below, “resulting in his instant death”, state news agency SPA said, quoting police.
This is not the first time this kind of thing has happened in Mecca, the holiest city in Islam.
The body was taken to a nearby hospital, with an investigation underway “to determine the victim’s identity, what led to the act and how he was able to commit it despite the existence of a metal fence”, SPA said.
Last year, a Saudi man tried to set himself on fire in front of the Kaaba — the square stone building in the centre of the mosque compound — but was stopped by security forces.
Every year, millions of Muslim pilgrims from across the world travel to Mecca and Medina, Islam’s second holiest site, also in western Saudi Arabia.