Dumped cars blight Saudi city

Hundreds of abandoned cars are causing problems for residents in one Saudi city, it's been reported.

Dirty, rusting vehicles are littering the streets of Jeddah, on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast, the Arab News website reports. The problem has left locals struggling to find parking spaces in residential areas, and some are worried it's "disfiguring the beauty of the tourist city", the website says. While abandoned cars are apparently given tickets to warn owners that they'll be fined, this seems to have had little effect. Local resident Muhammad Al-Hamadani says: "It is very difficult to find an empty parking space in any neighbourhood, or around public facilities such as gardens, because of the abandoned vehicles taking up precious space." Parking aside, the cars also provide homes to unwelcome rodents and insects, the website says.

Jeddah reportedly has the highest number of abandoned cars in the country. Some locals blame the authorities for failing to deal with the problem, but a spokesman for the local government tells Arab News that car owners don't report discarded vehicles. In 2013, around 900 vehicles were removed from Jeddah's streets in three months. At the time a city spokesman told Arab News that some cars had been involved in crime, but most "are old and have problems that would cost huge amounts to fix", causing them to be dumped.