The threat consisted only of US Army paratroopers being dropped from a plane to attend a pre-game show at the ballpark less than a mile away.
US police evacuated the Capitol building in Washington on Wednesday, April 20, after they considered a potential threat to be a harmless plane that media reports were participating in a parachute jump show over the capital’s baseball stadium. The warning, which was issued around 18:30 (22:30 GMT), was lifted less than twenty minutes later.
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The Capitol was evacuated tonight as a precaution. There is no threat, the police specified and promised further information will follow. More than an hour and thirty minutes after the first warning, the police still had not given an official reason. However, according to the chain NBC, a simple and embarrassing communication problem would be the reason for the evacuation. The reported threat was actually just U.S. Army paratroopers being dropped from a plane to attend a pre-game show at the ballpark less than 1 mile from the Capitol.
Though brief, the warning was immediately shared by the American media, in a country still haunted by the memory of the September 11, 2001 attacks – during which planes piloted by al-Qaeda pilots crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center collapsed in New York and the Pentagon building in Washington. The Capitol, symbol of American democracy, has also been heavily guarded since the violent entry by supporters of Donald Trump on January 6, 2021, who came to denounce the outcome of the presidential election that put Democrat Joe Biden in power.
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The number of people present in the district Wednesday night was likely limited as the Senate and House of Representatives were not in session. “We’ve just had a very stressful fifteen minutes but we’re glad everyone is safe and sound,” tweeted Officer-Elect Teresa Leger Fernandez. Two Swiss tourists visiting the area around the Capitol explained that they “faced police officers who said we had to leave the building”. “They closed the security barriers behind us,” one of them told AFP, adding that the agents had not provided an explanation.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday condemned the “blatant negligence” of the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in causing “unnecessary panic” on Capitol Hill. “The fact that the US Federal Aviation Administration appears to have failed to notify Capitol Police of the planned overflight of Nationals Stadium is outrageous and inexcusable. The needless panic caused by this apparent negligence has particularly hurt elected officials, staff and employees who are still scarred by the trauma of the Jan. 6 attack on their workplace, she said in a statement, citing the attack on the Capitol in 2021.