• Monarchy in Saudi Arabia.Mohamed bin Salman, the pragmatic heir

Everything was a shock. Four Spanish actors have suffered a stabbing during the performance of a show in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, in full government campaign to boost the entertainment offer in the kingdom, sources from the Spanish company responsible for the function have confirmed to EL MUNDO .

The images that have transcended the event show an individual who, clutched with a knife, breaks into the stage where the work takes place and assaults the artists who were on the scene and fleeing in terror. "Around 8 p.m. Riyadh police arrested a 33-year-old Yemeni citizen after stabbing two men and a woman who were members of a theater group during a live show at King Abdullah Park in the district from Malaz, in the center of the capital, "the Saudi police said in a brief statement.

Sources from the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs have confirmed to EL MUNDO that the injured are of Spanish nationality. "The Embassy was notified immediately and has been providing support and assistance permanently as usual in all these cases," they add. In conversation with this newspaper, the company in charge of the work has recognized the events, which occurred last Monday night . In total, four members of the company, of Spanish nationality, were injured. The security guards neutralized in seconds the aggressor, who lived in the country, and the police cordoned off the area.

"We had an incident with a person who was mentally unbalanced, according to police," said Domingo Sánchez , director of Merlin Productions, the Malaga company that last summer brought a Saudi transcript to the city of Jeddah. "Valencian Fallas" and responsible for the show attacked.

"The individual was immediately arrested by the Saudi police and, thank God, everything was scared. We are all fine," says the businessman. "These are injuries without major importance and importance," insists Sánchez. The work -included in the cultural offer 'Riad Season', a heterogeneous two-month festival - is a combination of acrobatics and circus art.

The motivation is unknown

"We have been working here for three years and we have not had any incident so far," adds the director of the Spanish firm. After the attack, the victims - with superficial injuries - received medical attention at the Mohamed bin Abdelaziz hospital. The Red Crescent, alerted to the incident, sent up to nine ambulances to the scene. The security forces opened, shortly thereafter, an investigation to clarify the event, of which they have not transcended more details. The motivation of the aggressor is unknown .

It is the first occasion in which a show suffers an assault since, after the brilliant rise of Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, the absolute monarchy will drive the return of the theater and launch an ambitious initiative to turn leisure into one of the sectors of its economic diversification At the beginning of 2019 the authorities presented an entertainment offer that includes the celebration of "Sanfermines" or concerts of international groups, electronic sports competitions or the creation of theme parks in the middle of the desert.

In total, the Saudi General Entertainment Authority has promised to invest up to $ 64 billion in leisure. An accelerated opening operation that faces, however, the opposition of the most conservative sectors. Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of "Wahhabism," a rigorous stream of Sunni Islam. In 1979 the Islamic revolution in Iran and the assault and the capture of the Great Mosque of Mecca by a group of Islamists led by Yuhaiman al Otaibi in protest of the "Westernization" of Saudi society, led the authorities to radicalize their positions . In the following years, music disappeared from television along with the display of female figures; music stores closed and newspapers stopped publishing photographs of women.

The aggression has not modified the calendar of the Spanish company. "We will continue with the show , as we had planned," Sanchez told EL MUNDO. Yesterday, however, the rain that fell on the capital deprived the public of enjoying the work.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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