A video of a car ramming several barriers and eventually crashing through the southern gates of the Masjid al-Haram, also known as the Grand Mosque of Mecca, has emerged on social media. The footage shows a white car driven by an unknown perpetrator being chased by several people, presumably personnel from the mosque.
After ramming through the gates, the driver appears to manage to exit the car and tries to enter the mosque, built around one of the holiest sites in all of Islam, the Kaaba, but it is unclear if he was successful. There have been no reports of casualties as a result of the ramming, which happened when the number of visitors to the Masjid al-Haram is being limited due to the COVID pandemic.
The man was eventually apprehended and referred to the public prosecutor to face charges over his actions. Authorities in Mecca did not mention the perpetrator's name or motives, but noted that he had possibly been in an "abnormal condition" at the time of the incident.