A gunman opens fire with an assault rifle in LAX, killing a TSA agent and injuring at least six others before he was shot and captured. A GUNMAN has opened fire with an assault rifle at Los Angeles' international (LAX) airport, killing a security agent and wounding seven people, officials say. Several Australians have been caught up in the horrific shooting, which happened at LAX's terminal 3 at 9.20am (3.20am AEDT), just moments before a Virgin Australia flight from Syndey landed. Panicked travelers scrambled to escape on Friday after the lone suspect, described by witnesses as a young white male, pulled out the gun and began shooting, walking through a security checkpoint before being stopped in an exchange of fire with police. The shooter "came into Terminal Three, pulled an assault rifle out of a bag and began to open fire .. he proceeded up into the screening area .. and continued shooting," said LAX police chief Patrick Gannon. He then doubled back into the main terminal area, as travellers rushed to get out, and reached a Burger King restaurant before officers "engaged him in gunfire .. and were able to successfully take him into custody." Delayed passengers, airline employees and others watch from behind police lines after the shooting. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which employs screeners and guards at airports, confirmed one of its employees had died. "Multiple Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) were shot, one fatally," said a TSA statement emailed to AFP. Josh Odermatt, a Sydney student, was in the Virgin lounge in terminal 3 as the shooting unfolded He tweeted that he heard shots ring out and "tension was rife" as people were evacuated. "Being told to step around bullet casings or blood," Mr Odermatt tweeted. A police officers stands near an unidentified weapon in Terminal 3 of the Los Angeles International Airport. Mr Odermatt, 19, posted pictures of police officers standing guard over a rifle on the ground. Among the other Australians caught up in the attack was Adam Auld, who arrived in LA from Melbourne about two hours before the shooting. He said he walked past terminal 3 about 20 minutes before the gunman opened fire. When it went down, the place resembled a scene from Grand Theft Auto ... Police cars, helicopters and the fire department everywhere," Mr Auld, 37, said. Airport staff locked down the terminal he was in, so Mr Auld went to a bar to watch the incident unfold. A person being loaded into an ambulance after the shooting at LAX airport. "Once the bar saw what was happening live on TV, they turned it off so as not to alarm people," he said. Mr Auld, who is holidaying in the US, said it was "crazy stuff" and the airport was chaotic as flights were cancelled and people were delayed. He said a police dog squad was sweeping his terminal as he tried to get a connecting flight to Charlotte, where he planned to see an NFL game. Another Melbourne resident, Gary Wisniewski, said he also walked past terminal 3 just moments before the shooting. He and wife Grace Roberts, from Balnarring, also arrived on a Qantas flight from Melbourne at 7am (1am AEDT) and had a connecting flight to San Francisco. SWAT officers search a car park during a security check at the Los Angeles International Airport. "We had extra time and decided to walk around the airport footpath," Mr Wisniewski said. When we passed terminal 3, Grace said she heard sirens. But the dual American-Australian citizens were unaware of the tragedy that had unfolded until they arrived in another terminal and saw a TV. He said the atmosphere at the airport was "quite strange" and staff were struggling to cope with the chaos. Planes are landing, but have no gates to arrive at. All in all, I think it is just a situation that is unpredictable for them," Mr Wisniewski, 57, said. Police vehicles arrive at Terminal 3 at Los Angeles International Airport. "I was standing waiting for my wife and the next thing sirens started going off and police just swarmed," Ben Melling, an Australian living in Los Angeles who was waiting at LAX's Tom Bradley Terminal for his wife who was flying back to LA from Sydney. Tom Bradley sits alongside Terminal 3. "Guns were drawn," Melling told AAP. People ran for cover. It was like I was in a Hollywood movie. Police outside Terminal 3 at Los Angeles International Airport after shots were fired. It took his wife, Tracy, five hours to emerge from customs. Virgin Australia flies out of Terminal Three, but it's next flight out of the airport was not scheduled for some 12 hours from the time of the shooting. "We're advising our passengers to keep an eye on social media feeds and also our website, which will soon have an update," a Virgin Australia spokesman said. Qantas also flies out of LAX but not from Terminal Three, meaning no flights will be disrupted. Nearly 750 flights were affected, with 46 flight diversions, Gina Marie Lindsey, executive director of Los Angeles World Airports told CNN. People wait at Gate 142, Los Angeles International Airport, as the drama unfolds. Flight tracking site Flightaware.com reported 104 departures canceled and 93 arrivals canceled out of the 1114 flights that were scheduled to operate at LAX after 9:30 a.m. Meanwhile it's emerged the shooter, who opened fire shortly after 9am local time in the crowded terminal, sent a sibling a text message mentioning suicide, leading their father to seek police help in finding him, a New Jersey police chief says. Paul Ciancia's father called Pennsville Police Chief Allen Cummings early on Friday afternoon about the text message from the 23-year-old "in reference to him taking his own life," the chief told The Associated Press. The father asked for help in locating his son, Cummings said. The chief called Los Angeles police, which sent a patrol car to Ciancia's apartment. A departures screen shows flights cancelled or delayed after the shooting. "Basically, there were two roommates there" Cummings said. "They said, 'We saw him yesterday and he was fine."' It wasn't clear whether the police visited before or after the shooting. A motive for the shooting wasn't immediately clear. The shooter was wearing fatigues and carrying a bag containing a handwritten note that said he "wanted to kill TSA and pigs," the official said. Police gather at a home belonging to the father of the LAX shooting suspect Paul Ciancia in Pennsville, New Jersey. TSA stands for Transportation Security Administration, which handles airport security checks. Cianci was arrested and is reported to be in critical condition in hospital. The FBI has identified him as a New Jersey man with "strong anti-government views" living in Los Angeles. The Pennsville police department has had no dealings with Ciancia, Cummings said. A police cruiser on Friday blocked the long driveway to the home, which isn't visible from the road. A man sleeps on a baggage scale at the check-in counter after the shooting. Phone calls weren't answered, and efforts to reach siblings were unsuccessful. He was never weird toward me. He never gave me any weird vibes," neighbour Josh Pagan, 17, said, adding that in the 10 years he's lived across the street from the Ciancia family "they've been nothing but nice to us." Of the seven people injured, six were taken to hospital, said the head of the LA Fire Department James Featherstone, briefing reporters for the first time a couple of hours after the incident. Passengers evacuate the Los Angeles International Airport after shots were fired. One eyewitness recounted the shooter dressed in greyish-green clothing with an assault rifle opening fire as he went up an escalator and through the security area. Live television footage showed armed police on the top of parking structures, apparently still looking for a possible gunman, while many ambulances were parked outside a terminal building. Flights were disrupted and a "ground stop" was put in place, but about an hour after the incident erupted aircraft could be seen resuming landings at the airport. US singer Nick Jonas, best known as one of the Jonas Brothers, took to Twitter to report what it was like when he arrived on a flight. Landed at LAX at to the news that there was a shooting in the terminal my plane was supposed to deplane at. Emergency services arriving at the scene of the shooting. Actor James Franco was at the airport when the shooter opened fire. The Spider Man star posted what appeared to be a concerned-looking selfie inside a plane with this message: "At #lax Some s** tbag shot up the place." A photo of people evacuating onto the tarmac at Los Angeles Airport after the initial shots were fired. Hit TV series Mad Men was filming an episode at the airport at the time of the shooting, according to tweets from a production staffer. Dustin Woods, a key grip on the US drama, tweeted that the series was filming in terminal 4 at LAX, one terminal away from where a gunman opened fire with an assault rifle about 9.30am local time on Friday, Variety magazine reported. We are filming at LAX. Gun fire. Locked down. Evacuating!," Woods tweeted, followed later by, "Still in lock down. #mydayinla." Woods tweeted to TV Guide's Michael Schneider that the show he was working on was Mad Men, noting that it was the program's first day back shooting its seventh and final season, Variety reported. US network AMC, which airs Mad Men, declined to comment. Eyewitness Brian Adamick, 43, said he was preparing to board a flight when he saw people running through the terminal, away from a security area. He and others responded by going through an emergency exit onto the tarmac. "While I was on the tarmac, I heard two gunshots from the same area where the people had been running and screaming," he told the LA Times. A short time later shuttle buses began helping passengers to leave and he saw a wounded airport worker, from the TSA, board one bus, with a bloodied ankle. "It looked like it was straight out of the movies," said Adamick. Another non-US passenger, named only as Alex, said he was waiting in line on an upper terminal level when the shooter opened fire on the floor below. "He shot one guy downstairs," he told KTLA 5, adding that the gunman then went up some escalators toward a security area. "He fired several shots when he went through the security check," he said, adding: "He just went straight through the security check." The White House said President Barack Obama was kept up to date on the shooting. Department of Homeland Security acting secretary Rand Beers said his thoughts and prayers were with the victims. "This act of violence reminds us of the risks the brave men and women of TSA face every day as they work to protect the travelling public," Mr Beers said in a statement.