Thaindian News

Washington, Oct 19 (IANS) Shots were fired early Tuesday at the Pentagon, the headquarters of the US defence department, but no casualties were reported, authorities said.

Pentagon police officers heard at least five shots around 4:50 a.m., CNN quoted Pentagon police spokesman Chris Layman as saying. It’s not known who fired the shots, Layman added.

According to another Pentagon Force Protection Agency spokesman, Terry Sutherland, two bullets hit the Pentagon on the south side of the building — one striking a window and the other hitting the building itself.

There was a partial lockdown of the Pentagon’s south parking lot and south entrance for about an hour after the shooting, the report said.

Authorities briefly shut down a portion of Interstate 395 going out of the capital — which runs along the south side of the Pentagon — to conduct a search in the investigation.

Tuesday’s shooting follows a similar incident Sunday at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Virginia, near the entrance of Marine Corps Base Quantico.

A police statement Monday said “an unknown shooter or shooters fired shots at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, causing minor damage to the building’s windowed roof and a steel wall at the base of the structure.

“The museum was unoccupied at the time of the incident, and no one was injured,” the statement said.