'Gunfire' false alarm sparks panic in the US Capitol

Fri May 26, 7:06 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Tactical teams wearing flak jackets and police sniffer dogs swarmed through several US Congress buildings after an erroneous report of gunfire forced a lockdown of the sprawling Capitol office complex.

A US lawmaker admitted to being the source of the mistaken report of gunfire that sparked the mayhem amid worries that an armed intruder was on the loose in Congress, leading authorities to shut down parts of the legislative office complex for hours.

Republican Representative Jim Saxton (news, bio, voting record), speaking to Fox television, said he was in an elevator at the garage level of the Rayburn House Office building, when he heard what he thought was gunfire.

"I heard what I thought to be between six and ten shots," the Republican lawmaker said.

"It sounded exactly like gunfire to me. It was not of a backfire nature. It was the sharp crack as comes out of a weapon."

Saxton continued: "I dove back into the elevator, rushed back to my office and asked my chief of staff to report what I had seen or heard to the Capitol Hill Police, which she did, and that started the chain of events that unfolded over the course of the day."

The report prompted police to lock down the Capitol dome building and Rayburn for more than five hours, while they searched in vain for a possible gunman, trapping lawmakers, visitors and office workers in the congressional complex. >>>cont

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