WATCH ABOVE: U.S. authorities are on edge ahead of Independence Day celebrations this weekend. They’re worried about the potential for ISIS-inspired attack. As Jackson Proskow reports, a security scare in Washington, D.C. showed just how tense the situation is.
TORONTO – Police in D.C. said there is no evidence of a shooting or any weapons found following a report of shots fired at the Washington Navy Yard.
No arrests were made Thursday after U.S. Park Police responded to the Navy Yard around 7:40 a.m. ET.
The yard was on lockdown for more than two hours as officials investigated the report of an active shooter.
“No incident can be confirmed as of yet,” the Navy said on social media.
Photos on social media showed a large police presence in the area.
“Everyone is ordered to shelter in place,” Chris Johnson, a naval spokesperson, told local media.
Police sources told NBC News officers were sweeping buildings floor-by-floor.
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DC Fire said no injuries had been reported.
The Associated Press reported a federal official said Navy security has surveillance video of two people jumping a fence in the vicinity of a building where gunfire was reported.
The unnamed source told the news service the video showed the two jumping the fence a couple of minutes before the first report of the shots.
At a morning press conference, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said a female employee reported to facility police she may have heard the sound of gunshots.
Bowser said police officials at the Navy Yard sent out a call to law enforcement in the area.
“At this time there is no evidence of gunshots, there is no evidence of a shooter…and any victims,” the mayor said.
“I’m very proud of the officials that answered the call, we know there have been a lot of lessons learned from previous incidents,” Bowser added.
In 2013, a lone gunman fatally shot 12 people and injured three others at the Naval headquarters.
Police Chief Cathy Lanier said investigators interviewed the woman who reported the possible gunshots. Lanier said authorities regularly tell people that if they see something, they should say something — and this woman did just that.
The police chief said that all the procedures that were put in place after the 2013 shooting worked as designed.
“It went very, very well. A very smooth, well-coordinated response,” Lanier said, adding it was a great “exercise” to test what was fixed from 2013.
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