At least 12 people have been killed and 309 injured in an attack on an airport in the Saudi capital Riyadh, local authorities say, days after Yemen's Houthis claimed similar strikes. The deaths included four Saudis, two people from Bangladesh and one person each from the US, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt, the Saudi civil aviation authority said.

Operations at King Khalid International Airport have been suspended. Fighting has recently escalated between Yemen's Saudi-backed government forces and the Houthis, who control most of the country.

On Saturday, a projectile also fell near King Fahd International Airport in Dammam in eastern Saudi Arabia, the Saudi-led coalition said. The attacks come a day after authorities said three Saudis including a pilot were killed in two attacks on the airport by the Iran-backed Houthis the day prior.

Another three people were killed in Houthi attacks on two Saudi airports on 6 and 7 October. It said damage to the airport was being assessed.

An eyewitness who said they had been in the domestic terminal told the news agency that they had seen gate 401 hit and "injured [people] in front of my eyes", adding: " Everyone was running." More than a dozen ambulances were seen rushing to the airport, according to news agency Reuters, citing an eyewitness.

Saudi-led coalition spokesman Maj Gen Turki al-Maliki later said the attack on one of the passenger terminals resulted in deaths and injuries among civilian passengers and airport staff. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said strongly condemned recent attacks on Saudi Arabia as he confirmed an American citizen was killed in the strikes.

Western embassies in Saudi Arabia have warned their citizens away from the airport. Several Gulf airlines said they had cancelled their flights to and from the airport, with Kuwait Airways citing the "security situation" there.

All flights to Riyadh have either been diverted or cancelled, aviation tracker Flightradar shows. The Houthis say they are targeting Saudi Arabia over its support for government forces in Yemen's civil war.

The conflict worsened after the Houthis seized strategically important stretches of the Red Sea coast in a rapid offensive. That included the port of Mokha on the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which is the narrowest point of the Red Sea and a chokepoint for global shipping.

Yemeni pro-government forces have since said they had "secured" the strait at the southern end of the Red Sea. A Saudi-led coalition was formed in 2015 after Arab countries joined forces to stop the Houthis taking over Yemen from the country's internationally recognised government.