The branch office of Austrian energy group OMV in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa has been the scene of an attack by a security guard who opened fire and killed a Frenchman assumed to be an OMV employee, in the office compound, Reuters reported today.
The gunman was later disarmed, the agency reported.
In a separate incident, suspected militants detonated a device near a British embassy vehicle in the capital.
The UK Foreign Office confirmed the attack, with one minor casualty among embassy staff. Witnesses said the blast had been caused by a rocket.
Following the attack on the embassy car, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague told BBC Radio 5 that all UK diplomats were remaining at home or in the embassy.
“It is a difficult and dangerous place to work,” he said.
Mr Hague said the blast was “a reminder that we have some way to go” in efforts to make Yemen safer.
The blast comes two days after Yemeni authorities tightened security around embassies in the capital following information of a planned attack by al-Qaeda.
In April a suicide bomber threw himself at the British ambassador’s two-car convoy in Sanaa as it neared the embassy compound.
The attacker injured three passers-by and damaged a police car.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) later claimed responsibility for the attack.
The embassy was closed for two weeks as a result.
