RIYADH – An expatriate has committed suicide by throwing himself off the roof of the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Makkah, sending shock waves across social media.

“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, Arab News reported.

Official reports came as footage, taken by worshippers, allegedly showed a man jumping off the mosque roof and died immediately.

His body was immediately sent to a local hospital as an investigation was launched “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,” SPA said.

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

The incident occurred during the fasting month of Ramadan when thousands of Muslims flock to the Grand Mosque.

The rare act was not the first of its kind to take place in Makkah, the holiest city in Islam.

Last year, a Saudi man tried to set himself on fire in front of the Kaa`ba but was stopped by security forces.

Suicide is prohibited in Islam and is considered a criminal offense with punitive laws in almost entire Muslim world.