Active shooter reported at Naval Medical Center in San Diego

The base remained on lockdown for almost six hours as military police went room to room and led personnel out of the building.

The nearby San Diego High School, Garfield High School and Roosevelt Middle School were all locked down until 9:30 a.m.as a precaution, San Diego Unified School spokeswoman Linda Zintz said.

People inside the building were advised in a post on the center’s Facebook page to run, hide or fight.

The facility had more than 1.2 million outpatient visits in 2014, admitting more than 19,000 patients that year.

TV images showed uniformed Navy personnel walking outside the medical facility.

Workers from the building were seen coming out in a single-file line with their hands raised in the air, as heavily armed police maintained a perimeter around the site.

A male witness earlier reported hearing three shots in the basement of a building housing a gym and barracks at the medical centre around 8am local time.

While it may be hard to imagine the terror that would overcome people when faced with trying to survive a situation involving an active shooter at work, school, or just out in public, that’s the premise behind a video created by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in the weeks after the San Bernardino shooting.

“We are continuing to clear the building to ensure there are no casualties and there’s nothing that’s not quite right in the building”, he said.

A representative for the medical center could not immediately be reached for comment.

The San Diego Police Department (SDPD) confirmed that officials at NMCSD reported shots fired in the facility, but could not offer further details at this time.

The Associated Press reports that military authorities are responding to the shooting.

A total of seven different federal, state and local law enforcement agencies were involved in Tuesday’s active shooter response.

Shortly after the alert was issued, the Naval Base San Diego Facebook page reported that children at childcare facilities at the National Maritime Center were “secured… accounted for and safe”.

The shooter was “just reported” in building No. 26, located at 34800 Bob Wilson Dr., the center said on Facebook just after 8 a.m.