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Active Shooter Confirmed At YouTube's Headquarters In Silicon Valley

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

And police have confirmed an active shooter at the Silicon Valley headquarters of YouTube. Outdoor video footage showed people with their hands in the air being led away from the building. Law enforcement has surrounded the area. This is happening now. It is a developing story, so there are a lot of facts we don't yet know.

For more on what we do know, let me bring in NPR's Laura Sydell. Hey, Laura.

LAURA SYDELL, BYLINE: Hi. Good afternoon.

KELLY: What other details can you fill in for us at this stage?

SYDELL: Well, we do know that people are showing up at area hospitals. San Francisco General has taken in some people as well as other area hospitals. But we don't have a sense of what the injuries are about. We've seen tweets from confirmed employees saying - some of whom were hiding who heard gunshots. But beyond that, we don't have a lot of details.

KELLY: Right. I mean, this being YouTube, we assume there were a lot of people inside that headquarters who were online, who are tweeting out and communicating over social media.

SYDELL: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think, you know, the headquarters - just so people get the sense, it's in a fairly suburban area in San Bruno. And it's fairly open around it in terms of an area to evacuate people to.

KELLY: Right. And I've been just checking YouTube, their website. Was there anything that we know of unusual underway there today, any unusual events, you know, that we might point to as we try to figure out what happened there?

SYDELL: No.

KELLY: No.

SYDELL: No. Nothing, you know, and there was really nothing unusual that we know of. You know, the other thing that I can confirm is that as it happened, apparently the city manager in San Bruno, Connie Jackson, said there were multiple 911 calls coming in at that moment.

KELLY: OK. What about - we mentioned that law enforcement has swarmed the area. Again, the video footage coming in and showing police cars, ambulances, what you would expect. Any more detail on how authorities are handling this?

SYDELL: Well, I do know that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ph) is also on the scene and that they are - you know, they were actually patting people down outside the headquarters. So at this point it's not clear that it's under control. I have seen some tweets from, again, confirmed employees saying they got out, made it home. So hopefully it is calming down.

KELLY: All right, a lot of details we still don't know there. That's NPR's Laura Sydell.

SYDELL: Absolutely.

KELLY: Thank you so much.

SYDELL: We'll keep you posted.

KELLY: OK. We will bring you more details as we get it on this situation - police confirming an active shooter at YouTube headquarters in Silicon Valley. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Laura Sydell fell in love with the intimate storytelling qualities of radio, which combined her passion for theatre and writing with her addiction to news. Over her career she has covered politics, arts, media, religion, and entrepreneurship. Currently Sydell is the Digital Culture Correspondent for NPR's All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, and NPR.org.