The American pilot and co-pilot of a Cessna airplane were lightly injured Wednesday evening when they crashed short of a runway in the Saudi capital, a civil aviation spokesman said.

The pilot had radioed that he needed to make an emergency landing because he had run out of fuel, Khaled al-Khaibari, spokesman for the General Authority of Civil Aviation, told AFP.

The aircraft had flown from Egypt to King Khalid International Airport, said the spokesman.