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Subscribe to RSSRIYADH -- Celebratory gunfire at a wedding party in eastern Saudi Arabia Tuesday night brought down an electric cable, killing 23 people, a local civil defense official said.
"At the wedding, the cable fell on a metal door and the 23 people who died were all electrocuted," Eastern Province official Abdullah Khashman said by phone.
However, the al-Jazeera news organization cited local media reports that some of the casualties died as a result of a fire caused by the downed cable. The local reports said the dead were women and children.
Shooting at weddings banned
A photograph of the aftermath of the accident, published on local newspapers' websites, showed a large courtyard strewn with fallen chairs and a pole in the middle supporting cables carrying lightbulbs.
All those killed were from the same tribe, Khashman said. Thirty others were injured in the incident near Abqaiq, a center of the Saudi energy industry.
Saudi Arabia banned the shooting of firearms at weddings, a popular tradition in tribal areas of the conservative Islamic kingdom, last month.
Eastern Province governor Prince Mohammed bin Fahd ordered an investigation into the incident, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
I love stories with happy endings.
brienp that is frickin funny.
You would THINK they would use blank rounds....but again...as soon as I read "tribal area"....that pretty much says it all. Heck, the countries can't even get along with each other over there...much less the tribal area's...so blanks wouldn't be an option because of all the tribal fighting, honor killings,and of course the men must keep the women and children in line.
As if this never happens in the US.
finally some good news for a change!
I don't think it's exactly terminal velocity on an object as small as a bullet, but, yes, the only forces (in an ideal environment) acting on the bullet once the bullet has exited the barrel is gravity and aerial friction. Therefore, it's not coming down at the same rate as it exited, as that would imply that the force of gravity is equal to the force exerted on the bullet by combustion within the chamber.
Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar!
lol! lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala! allah akbar!
I thought for sure this happened in the US. Sounds like a hillbilly wedding celebration to me. You mean the bullets come down when I shoot them up in the air?
Celebratory gunfire is only done by those who are so emotional and uneducated that they never seem to grasp the danger.
Either that or there turbin is wound to tight.
The gun ban didn't work, maybe they were purchased through the wedding show loophole.
Twenty three down, but so many more to go. Too bad they banned shooting at weddings. Maybe they can still do it at funerals. Heres hoping.
You might be a Saudi redneck......
Stupid as HELL!
Bang Bang - Your DEAD........
XX
Finally, American Armed Forces are not being blamed for the death of women and children. That one goes to the record book, particularly having been reported by Al-jazeera....My question is how do they know where the bullets are going to land?
RFFN!!!
Shocking. This story is certainly current. And watts up with shooting guns at a wedding? How revolting. Was the wedding large enough to need a sound system with an amp? This story will electrify safety conscious people.
It's Halloween. Give a guy a break for having a bit of morbid humor.
The Falcons are more intelligent than these backward feudals. This a wedding for Allah's sake, why shoot guns?
Stupidity - the anti-evoluton drug...
Wow...
Are they with 76 virgins or doesn't this qualify?
i think it qualifies if they say allah akbar and then go lalalalalalalalalalalala! lol
Saudi version of "My Big Redneck Wedding"
I wonder if anyone did the "Electric Slide"
This would never happen in the US except for the 4th of July or New Years.
Kind of reminds me of the old Polish (Pollock) jokes that were popular in the 1960's/1970's.
Not a good resume' stuffer, for THAT wedding planner!
They have no respect for law and it bit them. Shocking!!!
Poetic Justice!