The all-clear signal was sounded several minutes later and no explosions were heard.

A spokesman of the Kuwaiti army said earlier that a Patriot missile was fired early Tuesday after a monitoring station reported a hostile object in the skies over the north of the country.

Some 17 missiles have been fired at Kuwait since the start of the war in neighbouring Iraq, but they have caused relatively little damage.

Two people were slightly injured Sunday when a low-flying missile landed in the sea close to a waterfront shopping mall.

WAR.WIRE