Expatriate Britons weigh risks of good life in Saudi Arabia

The 30,000 British expatriates in Saudi Arabia were debating the danger of remaining in the country yesterday as the death toll mounted from Monday's terrorist attack on three housing compounds for foreigners. Airlines were besieged with requests for outward flights.

Looking at the debris left by the attack on the al-Hamra compound in Riyadh, Russell Butler, a teacher at the city's British school, doubted that he would be staying for long. "People are pulling together their stuff and getting ready to get out," he said. "The school is shut indefinitely, though we are seeing if we can get a skeleton staff together. The compound is virtually deserted.

"The vast majority of teachers are going. I'm planning to leave as well. All the flights back to London are double- booked now; the airlines are telling travellers to get to the airport four hours in advance."

He said several Britons remained unaccounted for.

The blast from the van-bomb demolished villas in the compound and tore off the facades of nearby flats. Some residents had a lucky escape. A woman at a barbecue party was blown into the swimming pool, suffering only a broken arm.

Mr Butler said: A few residents say it's like Belfast [in the Troubles] and they can live with it. Others have lived here for eight or 10 years, they have seen it deteriorate to the point where it's out of control and the Saudis can't control [the situation]. My feeling is, the expatriate mentality is fickle; if nothing else happens over the summer, people will come back. But most [of us] think there will be more attacks."

Since the attacks, the British Foreign Office has warned against travel to Saudi Arabia unless absolutely necessary.

The Foreign Office's website said yesterday that there remained a "high threat" of further strikes. The American state department went further, suggesting that all private US citizens should consider leaving the country.

British Airways cancelled overnight stays in Saudi Arabia for its flight crews. Staff will fly to Cyprus, where other crews will replace them before the planes complete their return leg to Britain.

There were reports yesterday that Saudi police and firefighters had looted possessions from apartments. One Briton said: "Jewellery and mobile phones have gone already. The police are not well paid."

Despite the scare, the wife of a British engineer, who works for a British defence contractor, said she hoped to join him soon at their compound in Khamis Mushayt, 60 miles from the border with Yemen.

Speaking from her home in the UK, the woman, who declined to be identified, said their compound was protected by Saudi air force guards. "When you go out into the town you can hear the youngsters chanting 'Osama bin Laden, Osama bin Laden'," she said. "My husband was told yesterday that 15 of the 17 Saudis wanted [for al-Qaida links] just before the attacks came from the local area.

"The British engineers went to work yesterday as normal, but when they arrived they found the Americans from McDonnell Douglas had been advised to remain in their compound for safety. The office was empty. Sri Lankan and Indian staff didn't appear," she said.

The woman, who left Saudi Arabia in March after the murder in Riyadh of a BAE Systems businessman, Robert Dent, said there had been numerous attacks near the compound.

"My husband has had a knife raised at him on his way to work; on another occasion he was run off the road. A colleague of his was shot when he stopped at traffic lights. We have been forbidden from jogging around the inner perimeter of the compound because someone was shot at there. But I feel safe in the compound. We have soldiers guarding us.

"[Many] of the youngsters see all westerners as bad and believe the US should not be in a Muslim country. They are poorly educated and believe anything they are told by their religious leaders.

"There will be a lot of people pulling out now, but a lot of people will still feel safe. Like me, they will wear shorts inside the compounds and dress in black when they go outside."