Saudi police dispersed a protest by a Shi'ite minority in the OPEC member's oil-producing Eastern province on Thursday with one to four people wounded as shots were heard, witnesses said.
One witness said police fired percussion bombs to disperse the crowd of around 200 people, while a witness and Shi'ite activist said shots were fired.
"There was firing, it was sporadic," the witness said.
The witness said he could not see where the firing was directed. Witnesses and activists said between one and four people were wounded.
Brent oil prices jumped by $3 a barrel on the Saudi report, fully erasing earlier losses to trade close to $116 a barrel at 1900 GMT. Earlier in the day, oil was falling on the back of Europe's debt woes.
More than 32,000 people have backed a call on social networking site Facebook to hold two protests in the world's top oil exporter this month. The first is planned for Friday.
A loose coalition of liberals, rights activists, moderate Sunni Islamists and Shi'ite Muslims has called for political reform. Saudi rulers say the country has no need for protests or parties as an Islamic state applying sharia (Islamic law).
In oil-rich Eastern Province, Shi'ites have long complained of marginalization and have staged small demonstrations for almost three weeks.
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