US air base in Italy goes on lockdown over ‘security incident’ with ‘people taking shelter’

A US air base in Italy was placed under lockdown for several hours due to unspecified “security incident” on Wednesday. Naval Air Station Sigonella stated on its official Facebook page that the site was locked down “due to an ongoing situation.” According to the posts, whatever transpired took place at a base gate. Service men were advised to “avoid travelling on highway SP105 between Marinai Housing Complex” and a portion of the base.

The posts didn't go into detail about what transpired. The alert ended at approximately 11:25 a.m. (1025 GMT), according to a another post that was made several hours later, and travel was once again permitted on the base. “Today’s shelter-in-place was ordered in response to a security incident. The situation was cleared at 11:25 a.m. and the shelter-in-place has been lifted. Inbound and outbound traffic lanes at the NAS 2 base entry control point are open,” the post read.

There were “no injuries” from the event, according to US Navy Lt. Andrea Perez, a base spokesperson who told The Associated Press that further information would be made public later Wednesday.