The Pentagon was placed on alert for an hour and a half Tuesday morning due to a nearby shooting, according to the security services of the United States Department of Defense.
Employees were called through a loudspeaker to stay inside the building around 10:40 am (2:40 pm GMT) after several shots were heard at the bus station that is near the famous building in the suburbs of Washington.
The Pentagon is currently on lockdown due to an incident at the Pentagon Transit Center. We ask the public to avoid the area. More information will be coming soon.
– Pentagon Force Protection Agency (Official) (@PFPAOfficial) August 3, 2021
The alert status was lifted around 12:10 pm but the exits of the metro station and bus station closest to the Pentagon remained closed until further notice. The circumstances of the incident remain unclear.
“The Pentagon is currently on high alert due to an incident at the transit station,” the US military protection force tweeted, asking the public to avoid the area.
The protection force did not say if there were any casualties, but Emergency Services in Arlington, the city where the Department of Defense and US Army Command are located, said “several patients” had been treated at the scene.
Local television station WUSA showed several ambulances and police vehicles outside the Pentagon on Tuesday. Defense Minister Lloyd Austin “was not in the building at the time of the incident,” spokesman John Kirby said.
“The minister was informed of the incident at the Pentagon and is regularly informed of all new developments,” he added. Austin and the chief of staff, General Mark Milley, were at the White House for a weekly meeting with President Joe Biden.