Two police officers were killed and two other people injured yesterday in an exchange of gunfire inside the historic US Capitol building as hundreds of tourists fled to safety.
The shootings caused widespread shock in Washington and across the US as the news spread in the late afternoon.
The gunman, believed to be Russell E. Westin (43), and a young woman were seriously injured. The condition of the policemen was first described as "very serious" but they were later declared dead at the hospitals where they were being treated.
The gunman has multiple injuries. He was said to be well-known to the Secret Service who guard the White House as a white male from the mid-West who had made threats against President Clinton.
The President, who had left for a weekend of relaxation at Camp David before the shootings took place, issued a statement saying that he and Mrs Hillary Clinton were "deeply disturbed" to hear about the shootings at the "House of the People". He offered his condolences to the families of the dead policemen.
Some of the shootings took place in the vicinity of the office of Mr Tom Delay, chief whip for the Republican majority in the House of Representatives.
Members of Congress barricaded themselves in their offices as the gunfire echoed in the ground floor area called the "Crypt" under the imposing dome of the Capitol building.
The gunman walked into the building without passing through the metal detector at the entrance used by many tourists. When asked to go back and through the barrier he shot Officer Jacob Chestnut, an 18-year veteran of the Capitol police.
The gunman was then chased by police along a corridor. Shooting then broke out near the office of Mr Delay. His bodyguard, Officer John Gibson, was wounded as he exchanged shots with the gunman and died later.
A woman tourist, Ms Angela Dickerson (24), was also wounded in the face and upper body by gunshots and was operated on last night.
The gunman was conscious when brought to hospital with gunshot wounds to chest, arm and leg. He was operated on last night.
The House and Senate were in session but business was winding down on the hot Friday afternoon as visitors milled around on guided tours and buying souvenirs.
As frightened tourists were rushed out of the huge building which has been used since 1800, ambulances and a helicopter began transporting the wounded to nearby hospitals. Witnesses described hearing the gunfire going on for several minutes and people falling to the ground.
Ms Mara Clery, an aide to Senator Robert Torricelli, was leading a tour of children which included some from Northern Ireland when the shooting broke out. "We had all these little kids, one of them from Belfast who flipped when the shots went off. We were trying to isolate her from that kind of thing, not letting her watch the news, when this happened."
Mr Justin Brown, who works at the souvenir counter, said: "I looked to my right and saw a guy with a gun. the first thing I thought was `duck'. There was a guy just running, just shooting at anybody he could hit. When I looked up, I saw the officer with a hole in his chest."
Mr Ronald Beamish (70), an English tourist, was one of the first to reach one of the wounded police officers. "I saw an officer hit the floor. I approached and felt his pulse. He was very seriously wounded. He was trying to say something to me but I could not hear, I could not understand him."
Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, who is also a heart surgeon, had just finished presiding on the floor of the Senate when the shooting broke out at 3.40 p.m. He went to the scene and gave medical assistance to the gunman and the victims. He also accompanied the gunman to hospital and helped stabilise his condition.
A search of the whole building by Capitol police and the FBI immediately took place. Witnesses were bussed away from the building to be interviewed.
There was a huge sense of shock as the news of the shooting spread through Washington that such an event could take place within the walls of a building so much a revered part of American history.
Security arrangements for the Capitol will now have to be reviewed. Some experts say that the checkpoints for the 4 million visitors who come each year to the Capitol will have to be at a security fence away from the building. This is the system at the White House where visitors are checked at the perimeter wall before being allowed into the building.
In 1947, Senator John Bricker of Ohio was shot at twice as he entered the Senate subway. The shots missed.
In 1954, some Puerto Rican protesters opened fire from the public gallery of the House and wounded five Congressmen inside the Capitol.
In 1971, a bomb exploded in the Senate rest-room causing much damage but no casualties. It was a time of increasing opposition to the war in Vietnam.
In 1983, a bomb exploded at night on the second floor damaging a conference room and the offices of Senator Robert Byrd. A warning was earlier phoned to the Washington Post from a caller saying the bomb was in response to US military aggression in Grenada and Lebanon.