Halloween toy gun sparks major US alert
Two women carrying a toy gun which was part of a Halloween costume sparked a major alert on Washington’s Capitol Hill tonight.
The pair walked past a distracted security guard who only later spotted on an X-ray monitor what he thought was a weapon in one of their bags, police said.
For an hour armed officers scoured the Cannon House Office Building room by room in the belief that the “gun” belonged to a man who had entered moments before the two women.
Congressmen and their staffs were evacuated and the building, just south of the Capitol, was locked down.
Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said that the incident was now over, that the women were “sorry” and he put the incident down to an “unusual set of Halloween circumstances”.
