Saudi questions suspects in teen pilgrims's death

Four men are being questioned in Saudi Arabia in connection with the possible rape and murder of an Algerian teenage girl who was on pilgrimage in Mecca, press reports said on Thursday.

The authorities in the Muslim holy city are questioning "four expatriates from Yemen and Bangladesh in connection with the suspected rape and murder of a 15-year-old Algerian girl," the Saudi Gazette reported.

Her body was found early on Wednesday on the roof of a hotel neighbouring her own, the English-language daily said. Several Saudi papers reported that she threw herself from a balcony in her own hotel in an attempt to escape.

"Four hotel employees, from Yemen and Bangladesh, were arrested and are being questioned," Major Abdul Mohsin al-Maiman of Mecca police was quoted by several papers as saying.

The teenager, who lived in France, had come to Mecca with members of her family to perform the Umrah or minor pilgrimage, Maiman said.

Her French mother had come with her Algerian father and seven-year-old brother to Mecca from the southern French port city of Marseille.
 

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