Saudi Arabian said it has foiled a plot to blow up the revered Grand Mosque in Mecca.

A suicide bomber blew himself up after a shootout with armed police in a building near the mosque, which is revered as Islam's holiest site.

The Saudi Interior ministry said that the blast wounded six foreigners and five members of security forces.

It also destroyed the three-storey building where the bomber had holed up after security forces launched the raid against the apparent plot.

The planned attack would have taken place just as the month of Ramadan fasting comes to an end and usher in Eid celebrations.

Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry said that a "terrorist network" was behind the plot but did not name any specific group.

The ultraconservative Sunni kingdom battled an al-Qaida insurgency for years and more recently has faced attacks from a local branch of the Islamic State group.

Neither group immediately claimed those arrested.

The Grand Mosque has been the target of militants before, in part as it represents a symbol of the ruling Al Saud family's clout in the Islamic world.

King Salman is known as the "custodian of the two holy mosques," a title used by the monarchs before him as well.

In 1979, some 250 militants seized the mosque and held it for two weeks as they demanded the royal family abdicate the throne. When Saudi troops stormed the mosque, the official death toll was 229, including extremists and soldiers.