AFP/ Riyadh

A Saudi fugitive was killed in a shootout with police after having escaped a raid on suspected jihadists, the interior ministry said Saturday.

A policeman was shot dead during Friday's raid in the eastern city of Taif in which three suspects were arrested and flags of the Islamic State jihadist group seized.

The operation was launched to detain Yousif Abdulatif Shabab al-Ghamdi but he managed to flee, only to be later tracked down by police and killed in a shootout, said the ministry.

It did not specify when Ghamdi died but said he opened fire with an automatic weapon and a pistol prompting police to shoot, it said, quoted by the Saudi Press Agency.

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