One person has died and seven people were wounded, one critically, during a shooting at Los Angeles International Airport, officials say.
There was a sense of panic and people were scared
The Transportation Security Administration said a number of its employees were injured, one fatally.
A lone suspect – whom law enforcement officials named to US media as 23-year-old Paul Ciancia – was wounded by police and detained.
Flights in and out of the busy airport were temporarily halted.
LA Airport police chief Patrick Gannon told reporters a “lone shooter” came into Terminal 3 at 9:20 local time (16:20 GMT).
‘Assault rifle’
The suspect “pulled an assault rifle out of a bag and began to open fire in the terminal”, he said.
The suspect then proceeded to a security screening area and continued shooting.
Witness Brian Keech told the Associated Press news agency he had heard “about a dozen gunshots” from inside the security gate at Terminal 3.
Authorities actively engaged the shooter, during which time the suspect was wounded and later arrested, Mr Gannon added.
The Transportation Security Administration later issued a statement reporting “multiple Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) were shot, one fatally”.
A local hospital official told reporters one of the injured was currently listed in critical condition, while two other victims were listed in fair condition.
The Federal Aviation Administration barred all flights landing at the airport during the incident, and outbound flights were delayed.
‘Mayhem’
LA Mayor Eric Garcetti said those inside the airport were now safe and outbound flights would resume in areas other than Terminal 3.
Inbound flights were currently arriving at half the normal rate, officials said.
The White House confirmed President Barack Obama had been briefed on the incident.
Witness Brian Adamick told the Los Angeles Times he and several other passengers went through a Terminal 3 emergency exit and on to the tarmac during the incident.
“While I was on the tarmac, I heard two gunshots from the same area where the people had been running and screaming,” he told the newspaper.
Vernon Cardenas described the scene inside Terminal 3 as “mayhem”.
“Sitting down, all of a sudden, literally just out of the blue, you hear a rumble in the background and a couple of seconds later, people are running at me,” he told the LA Times.
BBC
