Saudi Arabia said it has intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile late on Saturday north east of the capital Riyadh, Saudi official news agency said.
A TV channel linked to Houthi rebels in Yemen announced that they fired the missile targeting King Fahd airport.
Saudi forces have in the past managed to intercept Houthi missiles but none could reach as far as the capital’s outskirts.
“The missile was launched indiscriminately to target the civilian and populated areas,” said Turki al-Maliki, a spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen.
“Shattered fragments from the intercepted missile landed in an uninhabited area of the airport and there were no injuries.”
The Houthi-run Saba News agency in Yemen said the missile had been a Burkan H2.
The rebel group is believed to have access to a stockpile of Scud ballistic missiles and home-grown variants. Saudi forces have previously brought them down with Patriot surface-to-air missiles bought from the US.
The Houthis fired a missile towards Riyadh in May, a day before US President Donald Trump was due to arrive in the city for a visit, but it was shot down 200km (120 miles) from the capital.
The military alliance led by Saudi Arabia has launched thousands of air strikes against Yemen’s armed Houthi movement, which hails from Saadah and now controls much of the country.
