US Pentagon lifts lockdown hours after shooting near Transit Center; Metro entrance closed

UPDATE: Hours after placing a temporary lockdown following multiple gunshots near the area, the Pentagon was reopened on Tuesday. While Corridor 2 and the Metro entrance remain closed, Corridor 3 is open for pedestrian traffic. Earlier in the day, multiple gunshots were fired on a bus platform near Pentagon's Metro station. The public was advised to avoid traveling to the area following the incident.

The US Pentagon was placed under lockdown on Tuesday morning after multiple gunshots were fired near a platform by the facility's Metro station. A Pentagon announcement stated that the facility was on lockdown due to “police activity". The event occurred outside a building on the Metro Bus platform, which is a major entrance to the Pentagon used by thousands of personnel every day entering and leaving the building.

The facility is just steps from the Pentagon building, which is in Arlington County, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington, DC.

Following the shooting, several people suffered injuries and the public has been urged to avoid the area. The Arlington County Fire Department reported multiple patients, but it wasn't immediately clear if they had been shot and the extent of their injuries was unknown.

Metrobuses are being temporarily diverted from the transit hub, and trains are bypassing the Pentagon Station, due to an active police investigation on the Pentagon Reservation.

Firing at Pentagon

Two people were taken to hospitals and one was transported via helicopter. Multiple people needed assistance, the Arlington County fire department said. The police presence is centered at the Pentagon Transit Center, where buses stop south of the Pentagon. Footage taken from outside the large no-fly zone showed many emergency vehicles on the scene.

"Blue/Yellow Line Alert: Trains are temporarily bypassing Pentagon due to a police investigation outside the station at Pentagon. Shuttle buses requested," the railways informed in a tweet. 

Train service was also suspended between Pentagon City and Mt Vernon Sq/Arlington Cem due to 'police investigation', the railways added, requesting shuttle buses.

With AP Inputs