Summary

  1. Ballroom locked downpublished at 02:01 BST 26 April

    Bernd Debusmann Jr
    Reporting from the White House Correspondents' Dinner

    Members of the White House pool with President Trump today reported hearing Secret Service agents saying that a shooter is in custody.

    The BBC cannot independently verify that.

    There are still several thousand people in lockdown in the main ballroom of the Washington Hilton.

    FBI Director Kash Patel was seated near me. An agent climbed over several tables to speak to him before quickly evacuating him from the venue.

  2. Dinner will continue: announcementpublished at 01:59 BST 26 April
    Breaking

    Cai Pigliucci
    Reporting from the White House Correspondents' Dinner

    A speaker has just come on in the WHCA dinner that they will have an announcement shortly and suggest that the dinner will continue after that.

  3. Secret Service have removed president and first lady from the venue - CBS reportspublished at 01:57 BST 26 April

    CBS, BBC's US-based media partner, says the President and First Lady have both been removed from the dais by the Secret Service.

    Following their exit, armed agents from the Counter Assault Team (CAT) were seen standing on stage with long guns aimed toward the back of the room,

    CBS reports that shortly afterwards, security rushed another guest toward the front of the room, bounding over tables and empty chairs as the guest were down on the floor.

    CAT pushed over the bike rack and hustled the protectee out.

  4. Dinner attendees ducked under tablespublished at 01:55 BST 26 April

    Daniel Bush
    Reporting from the White House Correspondents' Dinner

    There is widespread confusion inside the ballroom at the White House Correspondents' Dinner here tonight after a security incident interrupted the program a few minutes ago.

    Dinner attendees ducked under tables as what sounded like gunshots rang out somewhere nearby the ballroom where the dinner is taking place at the Washington Hilton.

    President Donald Trump was quickly escorted out of the room by secret service agents. Soon after, senior administration officials including Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth were also escorted out by their security security details.

    After a chaotic few moments dinner guests emerged from beneath dinner tables and started taking stock of the situation.

    This is the first security breach at the dinner in recent memory, if ever. It was also the first time Trump attended the event as sitting president.

  5. Media and other attendees remain in ballroompublished at 01:49 BST 26 April

    Bernd Debusmann Jr
    Reporting from the White House Correspondents' Dinner

    US President Donald Trump and other government officials were quickly evacuated from the Washington Hilton on Saturday after what sounded like gunshots broke out.

    Senior government officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel, were quickly evacuated from the room after what appeared to be approximately five gunshots were heard.

    There has been no official confirmation or comment on what occurred.

    The media and other attendees at the White House Correspondents' Dinner remain in the ballroom.

  6. President rushed from dinnerpublished at 01:48 BST 26 April

    The president appeared to be part way through a conversation at the Washington Hilton when he was interrupted by a commotion at the White House table.

    Loud bangs could be heard and then various secret service members escorted the president away from the venue as they called out “stay down, stay down”.

    Stephen Miller, Trump’s top adviser, could be seen being escorted from the crowd and out of the venue. Most other attendees initially crouched down during the commotion but remained inside after the president was evacuated.

  7. Trump rushed from White House correspondents' dinner after suspected gunshots heardpublished at 01:47 BST 26 April
    Breaking

    Trump rushed from White House correspondents' dinner after suspected gunshots heard.