Saudi Arabia on Wednesday said that it had intercepted two missiles over its capital Riyadh that had been fired from Yemen, Saudi Gazette quoted state television channel Al-Ekhbariya as saying. Eyewitnesses told Arab News that they heard four consecutive explosions in Riyadh.

Colonel Turki al-Maliki, the spokesperson of the Saudi-led coalition fighting a war in Yemen, blamed the Houthi rebels. The Houthis have stepped up missile attacks on the kingdom in retaliation against air raids by the coalition forces, Reuters reported. The Houthi-affiliated website Al-Masirah said the missiles were intended to strike “economic targets in Riyadh”.

Saudi Arabia’s air defence forces intercepted a ballistic missile over Riyadh in April too, and stopped a drone targeting the city of Jazan.

Saudi Arabia and an alliance of Muslim states intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015 to push back the Houthis after they deposed the internationally recognised government of Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Thousands have died and millions have have been displaced since the coalition got involved in the war.