#Texas Fort Hood orders lockdown amid reports of shooting

Fort Hood orders lockdown amid reports of shooting

United States soldiers walk past a barrier constructed of shipping containers for a memorial service at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas November 9, 2009. (File: Reuters)

  

  

AFP, LOS ANGELES
Thursday, 3 April 2014

The Fort Hood military base in Texas ordered all staff to take shelter Wednesday amid media reports of an active shooting situation that had left several people wounded.

“All personnel on post are asked to shelter in place,” the U.S. base, where an army officer killed 13 people in a 2009 shooting rampage, said on its Twitter feed.

Several people were wounded and at least one person taken to hospital, according to reports cited by the local KCEN TV station, showing emergency vehicles racing to the scene.

A witness described a suspected gunman as being a white male in a gray Toyota car, using a .45 pistol, KCEN TV said, adding that he was believed to have been in a medical building on the base.

On November 5, 2009, Major Nidal Hasan opened fire at a medical facility in the sprawling Fort Hood base that serves as a staging point for soldiers to deploy to combat zones.

Twelve of the dead and 30 of the wounded were soldiers. Hasan was shot by a civilian police officer who responded to the attack.