Saudi Arabia intercepted five missiles fired by Yemen's Houthi movement early on Sunday, the Saudi-led coalition has said, as emergency alerts sounded across several regions including the capital, Riyadh.

Coalition spokesperson Major-General Turki al-Maliki said three ballistic missiles had been destroyed, including two aimed at Riyadh. He had earlier confirmed the interception of another ballistic missile directed towards the kingdom's Eastern Province.

The coalition later said its air defences had intercepted and destroyed two cruise missiles over Riyadh and the southern region, bringing the publicly announced total to five. General al-Maliki attributed the ballistic missiles to the Houthis, the Iran-aligned armed group that controls much of Yemen.

Alerts across Riyadh and the east

Residents in Riyadh heard loud booms after Civil Defence issued an early-warning alert, a Reuters witness reported. Authorities subsequently issued all-clear notices saying the immediate danger had passed.

Civil Defence alerts were also issued for Najran and communities in the Eastern Province, including Dammam, al-Ahsa and Buqayq. Officials later lifted each warning. The Saudi Press Agency had also reported a cruise-missile interception towards Riyadh shortly before the larger sequence of interceptions on Sunday.

The official announcements did not provide immediate details about casualties, falling debris or property damage. Officials have not disclosed the precise launch sites, the interception systems used or the intended targets within the threatened regions. The Houthis had not immediately issued a detailed public account matching all five weapons reported by Saudi authorities.

Escalation on both sides

The interceptions came as fighting intensified across Yemen, where government forces launched an operation last month to retake territory held by the Houthis, including the capital, Sanaa. The Houthis claimed they had carried out six operations against Aramco oil facilities, Riyadh airport and Saudi military positions on both sides of the border.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree claimed the coalition had carried out 105 air strikes and missile attacks over a 24-hour period against Sanaa and seven other governorates. He said the total number of attacks since the latest escalation began had reached 4,369.

One day before the Riyadh alerts, the Houthi-run Health Ministry said Saudi airstrikes killed at least 33 people near Sanaa. The ministry said the strikes hit the village of al-Shariyah in the Bani Hushaysh district, east of the capital, killing 33 people, including eight women and 13 children, and wounding at least 39 others. It alleged that homes, roads, paramedics and civil defence teams had been targeted. There was no immediate comment from the Saudi-led coalition on the reported casualties, and the claims could not be independently verified.

The escalation follows an attack on a market in Taiz province on Friday in which 30 people were killed. The Houthis blamed Saudi air strikes, while Yemeni government forces accused the group of launching a ballistic missile at the site.

Saudi Arabia entered Yemen's war in 2015 at the head of a coalition supporting the internationally recognised government after the Houthis seized the capital. A United Nations-brokered truce reached in 2022 sharply reduced cross-border attacks, but renewed fighting has eroded that period of relative calm. The United Nations has said more than 1,600 people have been killed and almost 300,000 displaced since the ceasefire collapsed in July.