Kuwait: Hit-and-run driver kills police officer on National Day

A Kuwaiti police officer was killed and five others wounded on Thursday when a hit-and-run driver collided with them at a checkpoint in the capital, Kuwait City.

Police pursued the car and apprehended the rogue driver after he tried to flee the scene - the male suspect has been named as Abdel Aziz Walid al-Shamlan.

"When the 20-year-old suspect was taken into custody he was behaving very strangely. He has a criminal record of drug arrests," a source in the Kuwaiti police told The New Arab.

The source denied that the incident was a terrorist attack.

The suspect's father told state media that his son had a history of mental health problems and that "no sane person would have done such an act".

Kuwait is still reeling from last year's bombing of a Shia mosque in the capital by the Islamic State group that killed 26 people and wounded 227 others.

The hit-and-run happened as Kuwaitis celebrated their National and Liberation Days, which fall on Thursday and Friday.