DHAKA: A gunman holding three laborers hostage in the Saudi capital Riyadh shot dead a member of the security forces when police tried to free the captives.

Police said on Monday, reports The Straits Times.

The gunman was later arrested and the three laborers were freed, a police statement on Sunday’s incident said.

There was no immediate word on the man's identity or his motivation.

‘An unknown man carrying an automatic weapon took three labourers hostage near al-Hamoud mosque ... and threatened to shoot passersby,’ state news agency SPA quoted a Riyadh police spokesman as saying in a statement.

‘When police surrounded him and asked him to drop his weapon he opened fire heavily,’ the statement said.

The security forces member was killed in an exchange of fire and two people, including a civilian, were wounded, he said.

BDST: 1852 HRS, DEC 15, 2014