JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Sept 11 (AFP) - A car blew up in front of a bank in the Saudi commercial capital of Jeddah Saturday, highlighting a wave of unrest in the kingdom as the world marked the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks in the United States.
At least one person, reportedly one of the bombers, was wounded in the blast in front of the headquarters of the group formerly known as the Saudi American Bank in the north of this Red Sea city.
"Four men arrived by car, got out and then the car exploded, injuring one of the men, who was arrested, while the other three fled" to the Al-Rueis district, some four kilometres (2.5 miles) away, a security source said.
The men then barricaded themselves inside a building some 700 metres (yards) from the US consulate. The building was then surrounded by police, the source said.
Saudi security forces entered a house in the city around midday (0900 GMT), arrested a man and questioned suspects, according to a policeman at the scene, who said "the operation is over."
However, a senior Jeddah police officer told AFP that the incident was criminally motivated, adding that three people wanted "to steal money from an automatic cash point of the SAMBA bank," as Saudi-American is now known.
Al-Arabiya satellite news channel reported that the blast happened at 9 am (0600 GMT), with one of its reporters adding that a stolen car had been used in the attack.
However, a spokesperson at the SAMBA branch in Jeddah's Al-Bawady neighbourhood told AFP that the branch had not been targeted by a car bomb and insisted he "did not hear any blast".
A US embassy spokesperson told AFP that the US consulate in Jeddah had closed around midday "as a precautionary measure".
A witness to the explosion said: "Pressurised containers, possibly gas cannisters or fire extinguishers, were in the car and one of them exploded."
A Saudi interior ministry spokesman declined to give any details on the blast, saying he could not confirm an explosion in Jeddah.
The blast came as Saudi officials maintained that ties between the kingdom and the United States had emerged stronger from the shock of the attacks in New York and Washington, despite the fact that the suicide hijackings had shaken traditionally close relations.
Fifteen of the 19 presumed suicide hijackers were Saudi.
Adel al-Jubeir, diplomatic advisor to de facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah, said the Saudi authorities' own battle with Islamic militancy over the past 18 months had helped the post-September 11 rapprochement.
"Things have started to change, particularly since the Riyadh bombings (of 2003) which brought terrorism to the kingdom," he said.
Since May 2003, some 90 people have been killed and several hundred wounded, including many foreigners, in a series of attacks blamed on Islamic militants in the kingdom.