United States Congress office building was on alert after reports of gunfire in the building on Friday and police said they are still investigating a 'report' of shots being fired.
There were reports of gunfire at the Rayburn Congressional office that led to a brief shut down of the United States Capitol, the dome structure that has the House of Representatives on one side and the Senate on the other.
The shut down of the Capitol was brief and so were the adjoining office buildings of members of Congress with the exception of the Rayburn Building, which continues to be in a lockdown status.
"The report is that shots were heard," a spokeswoman for the US Capitol Police told reporters in Washington, adding that there was still nothing definitive of what took place in the third level of the Garage of Rayburn building from where shots were heard.
The Capitol Hill police apparently received a call informing of the shots being heard.
The incident on the Capitol comes at a time when many members of Congress have already left Washington for the weeklong recess revolving around Memorial Day or were in the process of leaving. The House of Representatives was not in session and the Senate was just winding down.
At the Capitol, police closed all doors and stopped people from entering the building. It was reopened within an hour.
Several eyewitnesses interviewed on television and who were supposedly at around the same area where the incident is said to have taken place at the Rayburn said they had heard nothing but were asked to leave the area by the law enforcement authorities.
There is a firing range in the Rayburn Building, which is in use but for law enforcement purposes only. At the time of the lockdown police closed the tunnels in the Capitol area as well.
There are no reports of any arrest and although several ambulances are in the area, these are said to be of a precautionary nature.
Authorities have made it known that although nothing by way of a suspect had surfaced, they were going to search the Rayburn building very carefully to make sure that no one with a weapon was in the building.
Security around Capitol Hill is generally very high and has been significantly tightened in the aftermath of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. There was a deadly shooting incident in July 1998 when two Capitol Police officers were killed.
