Teen arrested for dancing the Macarena on Saudi street

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.

Screenshot of boy dancing in Saudi Arabia to 1990s hit 'Macarena'. Source: Ahmed Al Omran's Twitter account

It was 45 seconds of creative expressions that this week resulted in a Saudi Arabian teenager attracting police attention.

The boy, whose name and nationality were not given, was questioned because he had shown "improper public behavior" and disrupted traffic by dancing to the hit song, a statement from Mecca police said.

It was not clear whether he would be formally charged, Reuters reported.

In a 45-second video shared on social media in July, 2016 the teenager wears a striped t-shirt, grey sports shorts and brightly-coloured shoes strides to the middle of a crosswalk.

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.

Abdallah al-Shahani appeared on a viral video performing the dance at a music festival in the city of Taif in south-west Saudi Arabia.

The dance had been banned in the Kingdom by the National Committee for Drug Control, 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.

-With Reuters