The baboons took up residence in an abandoned building about a month ago and started raiding a local market in search for food. Locals also complain that they harass children and scatter litter from garbage cans. However, there have been no incidents of people being attacked by the monkeys so far.
"It is like living in a forest," the newspaper quotes a local resident as saying. "Monkeys walk the streets day and night"
Local authorities are currently drafting a set of measures to expel the intruders from the capital.
The monkeys, whose natural habitat lies in forest-covered mountains in the country's south, have never before appeared in Riyadh. Local scientists cite increasing garbage in the city as a possible reason for their migration.
Deforestation and the destruction of their natural habitat are forcing monkeys in many Asian countries to search for food in cities. In late October, the deputy mayor of New Delhi, India, died after falling from a first-floor terrace while fending off an attack by wild rhesus monkeys.
A village in Indonesia's East Java province also has a monkey problem after their home was cleared to make way for commercial houses.
