One witness saw the attacker clad in black Shalwar-Kameez rush into the mosque during Friday prayers and open "fire with a pistol", picking out the worshippers "one-by-one". He "then blew himself up", Ali Asghar said.

In a gruesome incident a six year old Saudi boy was beheaded outside the Prophets Mosque in the holy city of Medina while his mother watched in horror, Arab media reported Friday.