A member of the U.S. House of Representatives said on Friday that he was the source of an erroneous report of gunfire at a House office building garage in the morning that led to the closure of the building for several hours.

Speaking on Fox News television, Republican Representative Jim Saxton said he heard what appeared to be gunfire when he was in the elevator at the garage level of the Rayburn House Office Building.

Saxon, of New Jersey, said he heard what he thought to be between six and 10 shots, and the sound "was the sharp crack as comes out of a weapon." He then rushed to his office and asked his chief of staff to report what he thought he had heard to the Capitol Hill Police.

It was that report that started the chain of events at the Rayburn building, one of the three House office buildings that were located on the south of the Capitol.

The police shut down the Capitol for some time, and conduced a massive search at the Rayburn building for any possible suspect. Both the two buildings had been reopened.

All public schools in Washington, D.C., were briefly shut down as a result of the situation around the Capitol, news reports said.

No evidence had been found to prove the reported gun shots, no injuries were reported, and no arrests were made during the massive search of the building, Capitol Police spokeswoman Kimberly Schneider told reporters.

But one woman, a congressional staff member, was carried out and taken to a nearby hospital because of a panic attack caused by the incident.

The sound apparently came from construction work being done in the building, she said.

Schneider said some workers were in the elevator area of the Rayburn garage, and while doing their routine duties, they made some sort of noise that sounded like shots fired.

She said that while the police investigation was continuing, the construction work was a "plausible explanation" for the noise.

The House of Representatives was adjourned for the Memorial Day weekend, but one House committee, the Intelligence Committee, was holding a hearing when the alleged shots were reported. The Senate was in session at that time.

Source: Xinhua