Alabama base on lockdown after possible active shooter report

By Gina Cherelus

(Reuters) – A military base in northern Alabama was on lockdown on Tuesday following reports of a possible active shooter at the facility, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, base officials said.

A spokesman for the Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville, Christopher Colster, said employees there were sheltering in place and that it was a scary situation.

“We have no confirmed casualties at this point, so that’s a good thing,” Colster said in a live television interview.

The base had said earlier in a post on its official Twitter account that there was a possible active shooter and urged people at the facility to, “Run hide fight.”

A reporter on the scene for local broadcaster WAFF said he saw five police cars, two of them unmarked with blue lights on top, entering the base carrying officers in body armor.

Redstone Arsenal is home to military units including the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command and elements of the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Missile Defense Agency.

Alabama Representative Mo Brooks said he was monitoring the situation closely. “Please stay alert with updates – praying for all those on base,” Brooks wrote on Twitter.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey was also monitoring developments, Ivey wrote on Twitter.

(Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York; Additional reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago; Editing by Tom Brown)

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