A United States Coast Guard training exercise set off a security scare on Washington’s Potomac River on Friday as the United States marked the eighth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
Police and federal law enforcement officials said the incident, which prompted reports that shots had been fired at a boat in the river near the Pentagon, was actually a training exercise.
President Barack Obama and Defence Secretary Robert Gates had been attending a ceremony at the Pentagon, south of the city on the Virginia side of the river.
”They’re in a training exercise and we didn’t know it. Somebody reported that they had shot at somebody. That was part of the training exercise,” said Mike Libby of the US Park Police, who was by the river near the 14th Street Bridge.
A Federal law official later confirmed that no shots had been fired.
Traffic was moving freely across bridges and did not appear affected by the incident. — Reuters