LAX stampede: Two hurt as hundreds flee airport over reports of active shooter
Police say two people arrested after incident but no shots fired or gun found
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Two people were injured in a stampede at Los Angeles International Airport sparked by false reports of an active shooter.
Hundreds of passengers flooded out of the airport’s Terminal 1 building into onto the airfield, hiding behind luggage carts to try and get out of the airport.
Officials say that no shots were fired and no gun was ever recovered following the Thursday night incident, which briefly halted all airport operations.
Police say the panic started after an argument between two men that started outside the terminal.
The confrontation then spilled into the security area and a man breached TSA security and shouted that the other person had a gun.
Police say this led to a chain-reaction which caused passengers to flee what they thought was an active shooter situation.
Two people were detained, one of whom was taken to a hospital for a mental evaluation.
Elyse Craig and others hid in a closet after rumours of a shooter spread through the terminal.
“We closed the door and they were like what’s going on? I was like, I don’t know,” Ms Craig told NBC4.
“Everyone just said run. We just ran. And I didn’t even grab my phone or anything.”
The two injured people were were treated at the scene by Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics.
One of those injured was taken to hospital with moderate injuries.
The Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded all flights at LAX, with flights on the south side of the airport quickly allowed to resume service.
“It’s kind of like yelling ‘fire’ or something at a theatre, it’s the same thing here at the airport. We take security very seriously,” said Lieutenant Karla Rodriguez, an airport police spokeswoman.
All runways were open again by 9pm, 90 minutes after the incident, but delays remained at Terminal 1 throughout the night.