Yesterday's attack, the fourth in five weeks on Westerners in the kingdom that is battling al Qaeda militants, heightened security fears among the tens of thousands of expatriates in the world's largest oil exporter.
The BBC identified the dead cameraman as Simon Cumbers, 36, from Navan in County Meath, and the injured man as security correspondent Frank Gardner, 42. It said Gardner was in stable condition after extensive surgery overnight to treat his wounds, which were mainly to the abdomen.
Security sources said the gunmen fled after the shooting. British Ambassador Sherard Cowper-Coles said the journalists were with a Saudi information ministry guide at the time.
He told the BBC there was a "serious and chronic terrorist threat" in Saudi Arabia and warned the shooting could drive more Westerners to leave the Gulf state.
The BBC's head of news Richard Sambrook said the crew were in the Suweidi district, filming the house of an al Qaeda militant who police killed last year, when the gunmen attacked. Security sources said the gunmen separated the Saudi escort from the journalists before shooting them. Authorities are
questioning him for more details.
Meanwhile, a Saudi diplomat said a group linked to al Queda was to blame for the attack.
"It is the same fanatical group. They are linked to al Qaeda," Jamal Khashoggi, the media adviser to Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi ambassador in London, told Reuters, referring to recent attacks in the Saudi cities of Khobar and Yanbu.
The attack came a week after al Qaeda militants killed 22 people, 19 of them foreigners, in a shooting and hostage-taking spree in the oil city of Khobar. The assault helped push oil prices to record highs before producers vowed to raise output.