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IAF chief escapes unhurt in Pearl Harbor shooting

December 05, 2019 10:03 IST

Indian Air Force officials on Thursday said that Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria was attending a conference at the historic military base Pearl Harbour near Hawaii in America when it was put under a lockdown as authorities were responding to a shooting incident, in which according to local media at least three people were wounded.

IMAGE: A guard armed with an assault rifle checks vehicles entering the Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam in Honolulu, United States. Photograph: Darryl Oumi/Getty Images

"All Indian Air Force delegation members including the chief are safe and unaffected by the incident. The Pacific Air Chief Symposium also continued as the incident took place on the other side of the Pearl Harbour base," the officials said.

 

According to the local reports, three people have been injured, two of them critically in the shooting incident in which the suspect gunman took his own life.

A spokeswoman for the Joint Base Pearl Harbour-Hickam confirmed that a shooting had taken place but declined to give any further details.

"The incident occurred at approximately 2:30 pm (local time). Due to the ongoing security incident, access/gates to #JBPHH are closed," the base said on Twitter, adding that officials would provide further information when it became available.

The incident comes three days ahead of the anniversary of the December 7, 1941 attack on the naval base that led the United States to enter World War II by declaring war on Japan.

Source: ANI