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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:
Well, that's 23 less ragheads to worry about!
That's why girls (and boys) need to go to schools, so they can learn some traditions are better left behind.
There are stupid Saudis just like there are stupid Americans...only difference is we call them Honey Boo Boo and her family.
Or shaquanda
Rule number one while discharging firearms at celebrations. "Do not fire at or near electricty poles while drinking or over excited."
I thought for sure you were going to say the ak-47 fired and the bullet in the air and it hit the first guy that fired the gun. Karma
And people say Americans are stupid about guns.
Freakin' idiots. Let's get hopped up on goat milk kurd, fire automatic weapons into the air and see what happens. Beautiful!
Throw another camel on the barbie............
Whole new meaning to wedding barbque...........
@unconventional-6647560
"Guns don't work that way. The trigger needs to be squeezed. No squeeze, no boom boom"
So your saying it is impossible for a firearm to go off without a trigger pull? Some of the weapons these people are using are from the Vietnam era. Worn parts make for accidental discharges if jarred hard enough. The post was supposed to be facetious in nature, but it could happen.
With an average IQ among Saudis of between 85 and 90, this kind of catastrophe is inevitable.
I wonder if they said allah ahkbar?
Remember,somebody somewhere is getting married around the clock.You guys should fire your weapons more to celebrate!!!!! X0X0X0
Stupid is, as stupid does.