Hundreds of passengers at Los Angeles International Airport fled to the tarmac Thursday evening after reports of an active shooter caused chaos in Terminal 1. CBS Los Angeles reports that there was a "stampede of terrified travelers" around 7:30pm after a man breached security following an argument outside the terminal and shouted that somebody had a gun. Police say two people were detained, but no shots were fired and no weapon was recovered. A Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman says two people were injured in the panic near Gate 17A, KTLA reports. One person refused treatment and another was hospitalized.
"Approximately 300 passengers self-evacuated from the terminal onto the airfield," LAX officials said in a tweet. "As a result of the security incident, the FAA initiated a ground stop for flights at LAX," the airport said. All runways were reopened within about two hours. Airport police spokeswoman Lt. Kayla Rodriguez tells the Los Angeles Times that while many details remain unconfirmed, it appears that one of the detained men was chasing the other, and that the person being chased may have thought the man had a gun.
A pilot who saw people flee the terminal alerted the control tower, ABC7 reports. "We believe there is an active shooter in the terminal. This is not a joke," the pilot said. Passenger Donald Grady tells the station that there was "a lot of chaos" inside the terminal. "We saw that there were a lot of people coming away from the TSA area and running in different directions," he says. "It seemed like no one knew what was going on." (More Los Angeles International Airport stories.)
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