Saudi police said on Tuesday they had detained a 14-year-old boy who was filmed dancing to the 1990s hit song Macarena at a street crossing in the coastal city of Jeddah, in a clip that was widely shared on social media.
The teenager, whose name and nationality were not given, was being questioned because he had shown “improper public behaviour” and disrupted traffic, a statement from Mecca police said. It was not clear whether he would be formally charged.
Jeddah boy dancing in the middle of Tahlia Street is the hero we need pic.twitter.com/fui9v2UuDF
— Ahmed Al Omran (@ahmed) August 19, 2017
In the 45-second video, a teenager wearing a striped T-shirt, grey sports shorts and brightly coloured shoes strides to the middle of the crossing. He starts dancing to the catchy tune in front of five lanes of cars stopped at a traffic light.
Earlier this month police arrested and released a Saudi singer for using the “dab” move in an onstage dance – touching his face to the crook of his elbow. Abdallah Al Shahani appeared on a viral video performing the dance at a music festival in the city of Taif in south-western Saudi Arabia.
The dance had been banned in the Kingdom on the grounds that it advocated or encouraged drug abuse, according to Saudi media.
Saudis are among the most active users of social media in the Arab world, using the internet as an outlet for debate and interaction in their deeply conservative society.