A Sudanese expatriate based in Riyadh has been arrested in Jazan for allegedly running off with the young wife of another man working in the Eastern Province.

Security forces officers arrested him while he was allegedly attempting to cross into Yemen, according to a report on Tuesday. The officers had acted on a tip off from the Riyadh police.

A Border Guard patrol at the Aridah sector noticed the man and woman allegedly behaving suspiciously and attempting to cross the Saudi-Yemen border on foot. When detained, they allegedly said they were Saudis from a tribe in the region, said Brig. Abdullah Mahfouz, spokesman of the Border Guard in Jazan, in a press statement.

It is alleged that the two impersonated a Saudi couple and produced a forged family card to travel by bus and stay in an apartment in Riyadh before they left for Jazan, he said.

The fingerprint verification system at the Border Guard facility disclosed the identity of the two. It identified the man as a Sudanese national working in Riyadh and the woman as an Arab who is currently married to a man working in Dammam. The man allegedly told the investigators that they were traveling to Yemen to get married.

The police have launched an investigation.