BBC Man 'critical But Stable'

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner is in a "critical but stable" condition today following yesterday's gun attack in Saudi Arabia that left a colleague, Simon Cumbers, dead.

Richard Sambrook, the BBC director of news, told Radio 4's Today programme that Gardner received "extensive surgery" for abdominal gunshot wounds following the attack in a suburb of the Saudi capital Riyadh that is a known al-Qaida stronghold.

Cumbers, 36, an Irish freelance cameraman, was killed in the drive-by shooting, which took place yesterday near the house of an al-Qaida leader killed last year in a security crackdown.

Mr Sambrook said Gardner's condition had stabilised overnight and that the corporation was in touch with both men's families.

"He had extensive surgery last night. He suffered principally abdominal injuries, some gunshot wounds to his abdomen, but his condition is stable and obviously that is good news," he said.

"They were filming outside the house of a known militant when there was a drive-by shooting and they were shot with, as I understand it, some sort of machine pistol."

Mr Sambrook said both Gardner and Cumbers were experienced in working in troublespots.

Mr Gardner was appointed security correspondent in the wake of the September 11 attacks and has reported full-time on the war on terror.

As a freelance, Cumbers worked throughout the world for the BBC, Associated Press Television and ITN.

"Nobody knew Saudi Arabia or knew the sorts of risks they were undertaking better than Frank, who lived and worked in Saudi Arabia and spoke fluent Arabic and was an expert on al-Qaida and on terrorism," Mr Sambrook said.

"Simon was also extremely experienced in terms of working in difficult locations like this so both men would have thought very seriously about what they were doing and how they were going about it."

But Mr Sambrook admitted the BBC would have to consider its future reporting from Saudi Arabia in the light of yesterday's attack.

"We certainly intend to go on reporting what is happening in Saudi Arabia. But obviously how many people we deploy there and the kinds of people we deploy there, we are going to have to think about very carefully. We really need to understand what happened yesterday before we draw any conclusions," he said.

The shooting came a week after a terror attack in the country that killed 22 people, including one Briton.

Yesterday's shooting took place as the pair filmed a report about growing fears among workers in Saudi Arabia following that atrocity, the BBC said. Gardner and Cumbers were in a car with a Saudi escort in the Suweidi district when they come under fire early yesterday evening, according to a diplomatic source in Riyadh.

Security sources added that the gunmen separated the Saudi escort from the journalists before shooting the BBC men.

Pictures of one of the victims of the shooting, thought to be Gardner, sitting half upright in the road in a bloodstained white shirt, were broadcast yesterday on an Arabic TV channel.

Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said the shootings were sad news and it was "no coincidence" BBC staff should be targeted in this way.

"This tragic incident demonstrates that everyone in public life, or who reports upon it, is in the front line and treated as fair game by terrorists," Sir Menzies added.