At least 5 people shot near White House

At least five people have been shot by a gunman in Washington, D.C., about a 15-minute walk from the White House, the Associated Press has reported, citing police sources.

Police warned that an active shooter situation was unfolding and asked people to avoid the area.

“MPD’s Emergency Response Team is on scene. AVOID THE AREA,”

DC Police Department said on X on Thursday morning.

The shooter is barricaded in a building near the initial scene of the shooting, police said in a follow-up post.

At least one person may have been killed in the shooting, according to an eyewitness cited by AP.

“Within seconds there was a man who fell to the ground, and a pool of blood came out,”

the witness, who was at a gym when the shooting began, told the news agency.

“One gym member rushed to help him. He was instantly dead. He had been shot in the neck.”

Videos and images circulating on social media purport to show heavily armed police stationed on rooftops around a building. Other footage shows officers armed with ballistic shields closing in on what appears to be the same building.

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