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Around 200 police officers – some of them armed with assault rifles – arrived at the hospital in Houston, Texas, US.

The first calls of an active gunman came in to police at around 1.15pm (local time).

As police carried out building searches, a young woman was handcuffed by police and frogmarched away from the hospital, according to reports.

One police source told EyeWitness News "no active shooter" had been found and no injuries have been reported.

Hospital staff were denied entry into the medical centre.

(Image: ABC) (Image: SG) (Image: SG) (Image: SG)

One police chief said: "Multiple reports of an active shooter described as white male and bald by witnesses.

"However, the police department has carried out preliminary shooter and have not found evidence of an active shooter."

Patients were evacuated from the building as staff rushed them to the exits of the hospital which homes a trauma centre with more than 40 beds.

One witness said he “heard them screaming 'code white'" – the call enforced to tell any employees outside of the hospital to stay away due to an emergency.

"The doctors came in and said that there had been shots fired on the second floor," one witness told ABC13.

"To be in this situation is scary."

Last year a deputy was forced to shoot a suspect who had been brought to Ben Taub Hospital complaining of seizures.