Police place US Capital under lockdown

Jerusalem Post

Police place US Capitol under lockdown

Fri May 26, 2006 14:13

Police place US Capitol under lockdown
Jerusalem Post - 29 minutes ago
Police investigated reports of gunfire in a House of Representatives office building on Friday and briefly sealed off the US Capitol as a precaution. There was no confirmation of gunfire at the Rayburn House ...

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Police investigated reports of gunfire in a House of Representatives office building on Friday and briefly sealed off the US Capitol as a precaution.

There was no confirmation of gunfire at the Rayburn House Office Building, and officials said there were no immediate reports of injuries.

Still, police lined the street between the Capitol and the Rayburn building, rifles prominently displayed, and four ambulances were on standby outside the office structure.

The Senate was in session at the time, but the House was not. Most House members had left for a US holiday recess.

The Rayburn House Office Building was completed in early 1965 and is the third of three office buildings constructed for the House of Representatives. It sits across the street from the Capitol. The building has four stories above ground, two basements and three levels of underground garage space.

The US Capitol Police Department's Containment & Emergency Response Team maintains an indoor shooting range in the basement of the Rayburn building, according to the department's Web site. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia's delegate to Congress, raised the possibility that noises from a nearby construction site were mistaken for gunfire.

Within minutes of the reports, Rayburn's halls were virtually empty, and police were not allowing anyone to leave or take elevators or stairs to the garage.

At the Capitol, police quickly closed all doors, stopping people from entering the building. Tourists were herded into a first-floor chamber in the middle of the building. Other corridors on the House side of the building, where lawmakers had already left for the recess, were deserted.

The Capitol was reopened within an hour.

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Gunfire reports on Capitol Hill
ITV.com, UK - 54 minutes ago
Police on Capitol Hill are investigating "the sound of gunfire" in a House of Representatives office building. The news comes as ...

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