Ructions as king intercepts saboteur unexpectedly (9)
I believe the answer is:
outbreaks
'ructions' is the definition.
'king intercepts saboteur unexpectedly' is the wordplay.
'king' becomes 'k'.
'intercepts' means one lot of letters goes inside another (I've seen this in other clues).
'unexpectedly' indicates an anagram.
'saboteur' with letters rearranged gives 'outbreas'.
'k' going inside 'outbreas' is 'OUTBREAKS'.
'as' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for outbreaks that I've seen before include "Sudden occurrences, of disease or violence" , "Sudden eruptions of, say, war or disease" , "explosions" .)