Black smoke and flames rose near Riyadh's international airport on Saturday after Saudi authorities issued an air raid alert, as Saudi Arabia is fighting an escalating conflict with Yemen's Houthis.

Firefighters extinguished a blaze on a fuel tank bearing the logo of Saudi oil giant Aramco at a fuel depot near the airport, according to a journalist at the scene.

Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 reported "major problems" at Riyadh King Khalid International Airport. It listed the airport for a time under its maximum disruption index before normal traffic began to resume.

The disruption followed an overnight air raid alert issued by Saudi authorities. It was the first such warning since fighting in neighboring Yemen intensified this month.

Hours after the early morning alert, residents reported explosions and black smoke near the airport. No further details about the cause or any casualties were immediately available in the supplied reports.