THE Saudi-led invasion coalition outdid its previous atrocities in Yemen on Saturday when it massacred at least 140 mourners at a state funeral.

Victims were blown to pieces or burnt alive in horrific scenes at the service for Sheikh Ali al-Rawishan, father of Interior Minister Galal al-Rawishan, in the capital Sanaa’s Great Hall. At least 525 people were injured.

Rescuer Murad Tawfiq said: “The place has been turned into a lake of blood.”

Sanaa-based Yemeni journalist Hussain Albukhaiti reported via Twitter that the coalition launched three separate air strikes against the funeral hall, the third of which struck emergency services workers trying to save the victims.

Mr Albukhaiti added that the death toll could rise as high as 200.

The interior minister was seriously injured while Sanaa Mayor Major General Abdul-Qader Hilal was killed.

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam called the ruthless attack the latest act of “genocide” by the nine-nation coalition.

“The silence of the United Nations and the international community is the munition of the murderers,” he said. “Those murderers will not escape divine justice.”

The Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned the “criminal attack” by the “Saudi Wahhabi regime” and expressed its condolences and solidarity with the “steadfast” Yemeni people.

UN humanitarian co-ordinator Jamie McGoldrick said the relief community in the country was “shocked and outraged” by the “horrific attack.”

Saudi Arabia said it would launch an investigation into the “reports about the regrettable and painful bombing” — without admitting responsibility as the only air power over Yemen.

The atrocity may have been in revenge for last week’s sinking of an Emirati warship carrying arms to the coalition-occupied port of Aden by Yemen’s republican guard.

Houthi militia have also advanced deep into Saudi Arabia’s south-western provinces.

Even ousted Yemeni president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s Riyadh-based government — in whose name the coalition launched its war in May 2015 — was forced to condemn the attack, with Foreign Minister Abdulmalik al-Mekhlafi calling it a “crime.”

And in Washington national security council spokesman Ned Price said the White House would “review” its multibillion-dollar arms sales and logistical support to the coalition, saying its security co-operation agreement with Riyadh was “not a blank cheque.”