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Navy Yard In DC Locked Down After Gunfire Report

Authorities investigating claims of gun shots at the Washington DC Navy Yard have said there is no evidence of a shooting.

Officials received an alert about a potential gunman on Thursday morning, triggering a full lockdown of all staff at the defence facility on the Anacostia River.

Security saw surveillance video of two people jumping a fence near building 197 on the base minutes before the first report of gunfire was made.

In September 2013, military contractor Aaron Alexis killed 12 civilian workers after he went on a shooting rampage at building 197, before he himself was shot dead.

An official said there were no reports of injuries, no weapons have been found and no one has been arrested. US Capitol Police confirmed there was an "all clear" at the facility at around 10.15am.

Armed US Marshals wearing body armour gathered outside the gates of the facility after a huge security response to the alert.

A large number of police vehicles were also at the scene, with an area outside cordoned off and the gates of the yard shut.

Lieutenant Commander Scott Williams, 39, a guided missile engineer, was in the building when the lockdown came into force.

He told Reuters news agency: "It was pretty much a mirror image of what happened in 2013. Here we go again."

He added that security had been tightened after the 2013 attacks, with more ID checks and random bag searches.

An earlier report had claimed that the shooting was a "swatting hoax", but this related to a separate incident at a mosque in New Jersey.

The pedestrian plaza on Pennsylvania Avenue, in front of the White House, was sealed off by law enforcement after the Navy Yard alert.

The Navy Yard, in the southeast of Washington DC, is the country's oldest naval installation.

Building 197, which has been renamed the Humphreys Building after the 2013 shootings, has had new security measures put in place by the Pentagon and reopened this year.

It comes amid heightened security in the US ahead of Independence Day celebrations on Saturday.