More than a dozen ambulances were seen rushing to Riyadh's international airport, and travelers were evacuated from parts of the facility after a loud blast was heard there on Saturday, an eyewitness and people briefed on the matter said.

Axar.az reports, citing the Jerusalem Post, that Saturday's incident comes amid an escalation of missile strikes by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on the kingdom. The airport has already been attacked twice this week, leaving four people dead and others wounded, and badly damaging an aircraft.

The Saudi government's media office and the Saudi civil aviation authority did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the incident.

Flight tracking site Flightradar24 showed all flights to Riyadh had either been diverted or canceled, with only a helicopter hovering over the airport at one point.

The airport urged passengers to contact their airlines directly and check their flight status before heading there.