Armed man attempts to attack Imam at Mecca’s Grand Mosque

An armed man was detained after attempting to attack an Imam in Mecca’s Grand Mosque on Friday.

Security footage of the incident showed the man charging at the gates of the minbar pulpit from which Sheikh Bandar Baleelah was delivering a Khutbah sermon.

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The would-be attacker was quickly apprehended by security personnel and taken into custody.

The man was carrying a weapon when he charged the pulpit, according to the Haramain Sharifain Twitter account, which provides official updates from Saudi Arabia’s two holy mosques.

Haramain Sharifain did not specify the type of weapon, but security footage appears to show the man holding a knife or baton.

It is not the first time there has been an attempted attack at the Grand Mosque.

In March, a man was arrested for brandishing a knife while shouting terrorist slogans.

The gates of the Grand Mosque were rammed by a man driving a car in October 2020, and a man with a knife lunged at Imam Sheikh Abdulrahman al-Sudais in the late 2000s.

Imams only started traveling in and out of the Grand Mosque with a security team in recent years due to a rising number of incidents.

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