Brahimi: Bomb struck busy Saudi shopping area

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (CNN) -- An explosion killed at least two people and wounded four others Saturday in the eastern Saudia Arabian city of Al Khobar, officials said.

CNN's Rym Brahimi is in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where she had the latest on the blast.

CNN: Could you tell us what happened?

BRAHIMI: Yes, two expatriates were killed and four others were injured. There was a bomb explosion in the eastern Saudi town of Al Khobar -- these are reports from police. Apparently the bomb was placed in a busy shopping area in the town center; it has now been cordoned off by the Saudi security services.

The director of police in the eastern province said the incident took place at about 8 p.m., local time, in front of an electronics shop on King Khaled Street in Al Khobar.

Both are expatriate workers, as I said. Apparently they have different nationalities, but we are still waiting to hear from police about those nationalities.

CNN: Is there any indication from where this explosion took place, that it was specifically targeted to reach, perhaps, members of the international community?

BRAHIMI: There have been rumors to that effect, but nothing has been confirmed so far. Of course, ethnic tensions have been high in the region following the September 11 bombing. Since 1996 there have been a number of explosions in the kingdom that have took place. There have also been two bombings in Riyadh between November 17 and December 15 last year that killed a Briton and injured many expatriates.

For now, we don't really know if it was specifically targeting expatriate workers, but we expect to have more on that later.