WASHINGTON, Sept 1 (Reuters) - An Asian man carrying a handgun and who police believe may have explosives strapped to his body prompted the evacuation of the Discovery Channel headquarters building in suburban Washington, Montgomery County police said on Wednesday.
Police said they could not immediately confirm reports from Discovery employees that the man had taken a hostage in the lobby of the building in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Police sealed off the area around the building in Silver Spring, Maryland, and SWAT teams were at the scene. The building was ordered evacuated and children were removed from a day-care center.
"He appears to have some sort of explosive device on his person," Captain Paul Starks said reporters. He said the police were in contact with the suspect.
"I don’t know anything about his history," Starks said when asked by reporters about his possible relationship to Discovery.
However, Montgomery County Police Corporal Dan Friz said of the suspect: "His concerns are with the Discovery Corporation right now." He would not go into further details or say whether demands had been made.
Friz said he could not confirm that gunshots were fired in the building as a Discovery employee had told the local ABC television affiliate.
A reporter from the local ABC affiliate said he saw an ambulance crew wheel a gurney into the building about an hour after the incident began at 1 p.m. EDT, but there was no official word of casualties.
Police were watching the suspect on the building’s closed-circuit security system and Discovery employees posted updates on the situation on Twitter.
Roads in the normally busy urban center at the intersection of Colesville Road and Georgia Avenue on the edge of Washington were blocked to all traffic. Discovery Communications said it reaches 1.5 billion subscribers in more than 180 countries with the Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Science Channel and Planet Green networks.
