RIYADH — A number of curfew violations were reported in the Kingdom during last Saturday and Sunday with Riyadh Province registering 52 percent of the violations. The curfew violations reached their peak at the beginning of the last week of Shaaban, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) cited the Security Spokesman of the Ministry of Interior Lt. Col. Talal Al-Shalhoub as stating. In a press conference on Monday, Lt. Col. Al-Shalhoub thanked Allah Almighty that the number of violations started dropping gradually with the advent of the holy month of Ramadan in all regions of the Kingdom until it reached its lowest levels in all the regions except Riyadh Province, where the violations have witnessed a rise since Ramadan 10, and it is still recording the highest number of curfew violations in the Kingdom. Overall Riyadh Province registered the highest number of curfew violations in the Kingdom, making for 39 percent of the total violations recorded in the country since the beginning of the announcement of the curfew directives, followed by Makkah Province with approximately 22 percent, the Eastern Province with 8.5 percent and Madinah Province with 8 percent. He further said that the police and security patrols carried out over 600 campaigns and inspection rounds in all of the Kingdom's cities and governorates during the past 24 hours to implement the instructions forbidding gatherings in residential neighborhoods and rest houses. He added that several of these campaigns were carried out in cooperation with the other government agencies, with the aim of imposing precautionary measures and preventing gatherings in banks and markets and a number of public places such as industrial areas and sites where labor violations are detected. Speaking during the press conference, he also referred to the high rate of fire accidents with people being trapped inside their homes since the beginning of the curfew. The total number of fire accidents in homes stood at 2,300.
