Frenchman commits suicide at Makkah's Grand Mosque

RIYADH: A Frenchman has committed suicide by throwing himself off the roof of the Grand Mosque in Makkah, Saudi and French officials said Saturday.

"A foreigner threw himself from the roof of the Grand Mosque in Makkah" to the courtyard below, "resulting in his instant death", Saudi police told the official SPA news agency.

A French foreign ministry official told AFP in Paris that the deceased was French but gave no further details.

The body was transported to hospital, with an investigation underway "to determine the victim's identity, what led to the act and how he was able to commit it despite the existence of a metal fence," the SPA said.

Every year, millions of Muslim pilgrims from across the world travel to Makkah and Madina, Islam´s holiest sites, in western Saudi Arabia.