Los Angeles International Airport was partly evacuated and some flights delayed on Friday evening after passengers mistook the noise from a car crash outside for gunfire, at around the same time as an anonymous caller reported an armed man in a terminal, officials said. The reports of an armed man and shots fired, while they appear to be false, disrupted flight operations and alarmed passengers at the California airport, one of the world's busiest, where a gunman killed a federal security agent and wounded several others in a shooting spree on Nov. 1. Shortly before 7:30 p.m. local time on Friday, airport police responded to a report from passengers that shots were fired at terminal 5. They found this report to be false, citing a "loud noise" produced from a multiple-vehicle traffic accident on a roadway outside the terminal, according to airport spokeswoman Nancy Castles. At around the same time, an anonymous caller told airport police that there was a man with a weapon in terminal 4, Castles said. Police investigated and found that report to be false but fully evacuated the terminal so it could be searched. At least 2,000 passengers are estimated to have either fled on their own or under direction by airport police.
