Pentagon lifts lockdown after shooting outside entrance

The Pentagon, headquarters of the US Department of Defense, went into lockdown after it was reported that three individuals were shot. Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/AFP

The Pentagon complex was locked down for approximately 75 minutes on Tuesday after a shooting at the building’s Metro entrance.

It was not immediately clear how many shots were fired or if anyone was injured or killed.

Just before noon, officials said the scene had been secured, and a later message, posted on Twitter, announced that the building had reopened, but said the Metro entrance remained closed.

According to a public affairs employee in the Secretary of Defense’s office, a message was read over the Pentagon’s loudspeaker system at 10:45 am ET stating that there had been “a shooting incident at the Metro bus area” and instructing employees to “stay in the building until further notice.”

Also read: Officer dead, suspect killed in violence outside Pentagon

The announcement was followed by a similar alert sent to all computer terminals in the Pentagon approximately 15 minutes later.

Security at the building is provided by the Pentagon Force Protection Agency. Phone calls to the agency’s spokesperson were not immediately returned.

The Pentagon’s Metro entrance was previously attacked in March 2010, when John Patrick Bedell pulled out two 9 mm semiautomatic weapons and began shooting at the security checkpoint near the entrance to the Pentagon subway station, wounding two officers. Bedell was shot and killed by security officers.

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