One person has been killed and at least two people are injured after a shooting at a gate to the National Security Agency (NSA) headquarters.

Gunfire broke out after a car tried to ram the gate to the sprawling military campus near Washington DC, an unnamed official told the Associated Press.

Aerial footage showed a police vehicle and another car with extensive damage.

Two people were taken to hospital.

Photo AP

Fuller details are not immediately available, and multiple requests for information sent to the NSA have not yet been returned. Calls to the NSA were answered, but no information was provided. Calls to spokespersons for the Army were not picked up.

Helicopter footage showed two cars – one a police vehicle and the other a black vehicle with no insignia – in a junction that had been roped off near the security gates leading to the NSA.

The cars appear to have collided and debris is strewn across the intersection. A white cloth appears to cover something beside the black vehicle.

The large Fort Meade campus, located in the suburbs of Washington, is home to about 40,000 military and civilian personnel, plus many members of employees’ family.

The facility houses the US Cyber Command, the US Defense Information School, in addition to the NSA.

Local emergency responders say that the NSA police force is handling the incident, and local agencies are providing support.

The NSA is a clandestine intelligence agency, charged with collecting and analyzing electronic signals for US intelligence and counterintelligence purposes. The agency rose to prominence after Edward Snowden leaked thousands of the agency’s documents in the Spring of 2013.

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