A lone shooter has opened fire at Florida’s Fort Lauderdale international airport, killing five people and injuring eight before he was taken into custody, officials said.
The attack sent panicked passengers running out of the terminal and on to the tarmac.
Authorities gave no details on a possible motive for the shooting inside terminal 2, which serves Delta Air Lines and Air Canada.
“People started kind of screaming and trying to get out of any door they could or hide under the chairs,” a witness, Mark Lea, told MSNBC. “He just kind of continued coming in, just randomly shooting at people, no rhyme or reason to it.”
The airport suspended operations as law enforcement authorities rushed to the scene and emergency medical workers treated at least one bleeding victim on the tarmac.
Mr Lea said the gunman said nothing as he “went up and down the carousels of the baggage claim, shooting through luggage to get at people that were hiding”. He had a handgun and went through about three magazines of ammunition, Mr Lea said.
Then the gunman threw down his weapon and lay spread-eagle on the ground until he was taken into custody, Mr Lea said.
A passenger said he heard the first gunshots as he picked up his luggage from a baggage claim carousel.
John Schilcher told Fox News the person next to him fell to the ground on Friday. He said other people started falling, and he then dropped to the ground with his wife and mother-in-law. Mr Schilcher said “the firing just went on and on”.
He said the shooter emptied his weapon and reloaded during an eerily quiet lull in the gunfire. Mr Schilcher said he did not assume it was safe until he saw a police officer standing over him.
Police swarm second story of Terminal 2 parking garage at #FLL telling us to duck for cover after reports of second incident. @wsvn pic.twitter.com/00eqjFO5g1
— Joe Roetz 7News (@JoeRoetz) January 6, 2017
He said he remained on the ground and was told not to move as authorities investigated unconfirmed reports of a second shooting.
At the time, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office cited multiple deaths on its Twitter account, and Governor Rick Scott was headed to the airport for a briefing by law enforcement.
News stations showed video of medics taking care of a bleeding victim outside the airport. News helicopters showed hundreds of people standing on the tarmac as an ambulance drove by.
Broward County Mayor Barbara Sharief told CNN authorities that a lone shooter was responsible for the attack and had been taken into custody.
“We have an active crime scene investigation involving terminal 2,” she said.
Jillian Saunders, from Palm Beach, Florida, told The Associated Press in direct Twitter messages that she was watching the activity on the tarmac from a plane scheduled to fly to Los Angeles.
“Everything you see on the news is happening outside my window,” she said.
“I am luckily on the plane and they said we are right now the safest people at the airport.”
Airport officials said on the airport’s website that it was suspending flights.
Earlier in the day, the Federal Aviation Administration regulated the pace of flights because of heavy volume after morning fog.
According to tracking service FlightAware, about 60 flights to and from Fort Lauderdale were delayed and fewer than a dozen cancelled before the shooting.
President-elect Donald Trump said he was monitoring the situation and that he has spoken with Mr Scott.
Mr Trump tweeted, “Monitoring the terrible situation in Florida. Just spoke to Governor Scott. Thoughts and prayers for all. Stay safe!”
Senator Bill Nelson of Florida claimed the gunman was carrying military ID in the name of Esteban Santiago, but that it was unclear whether it was his.
“We don’t know a motive at this point,” Mr Nelson said. “This could well be someone who is mentally deranged, or in fact it could be someone who had a much more sinister motive that we have to worry about every day, and that is terrorism. We can’t conclude that.”
