The officer who was killed, Fahad al-Roehli.

Saudi Interior Ministry said on Wednesday that a policeman was shot dead by unknown assailants in Qatif on the Gulf coast yesterday evening.

The interior ministry said in a statement gunfire broke out at about 7:30 pm on Tuesday when police tried to intercept a suspicious car near the central hospital in Qatif.

Someone in the car started shooting, mortally wounding one of the officers, it said.

Police stopped the suspects’ car but they managed to escape “while shooting randomly”. They made their getaway after stealing the car of a doctor, the ministry added.

Police found Molotov cocktails in the suspects’ abandoned vehicle, which also had been stolen.