A WOMAN was arrested after smashing into a police car and trying to run down cops near the White House, cops said.

Shots were fired on Capitol Hill in Washington DC after driver Taleah Everett, 20, was stopped at a vehicle checkpoint where she pulled a u-turn and crashed into the cruiser.

6 Taleah Everett, centre, is taken into custody on Capitol Hill in Washington Credit: AP:Associated Press

6 Police say the driver struck a US Capitol Police cruiser Credit: AP:Associated Press

6 A window of a dark coloured saloon car was shot out after a car crashed into police in the Capitol grounds

Cops holding machine guns swarmed the Capitol grounds — the centre of US lawmaking — before she was taken into custody.

Everett, who police described as "erratic and aggressive", was charged with seven counts of assault on a police officer, among other offences.

She was due in court on at the time of the crash chaos in a domestic violence case and was the subject of a no-contact order, Maryland court records show.

There were no injuries and investigators are not treating it as a terror incident.

6 Streets near the Capitol Building were shut down for three hours after Everett rammed into a police car Credit: AP:Associated Press

Sounded like shots fired at the Capitol. Our view from Rayburn. pic.twitter.com/gPerfVGM2s — Drew Griffin (@GriffDrew4) March 29, 2017

6 Streets around the Capitol were cordoned off by police Credit: AP:Associated Press

Ambulances were sent to the scene near the Botanic Gardens but did not take anyone to hospital.

Capitol Police described the incident as "criminal in nature" but with apparently "no nexus to terrorism".

Operations inside the white-domed Capitol appeared to continue as normal.

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Witnesses said they saw 10 police cruisers casing the car before three shots were fired.

People were cleared from the streets as police pursued the attacker on foot after she leaped from her car.

One picture shows police officers hunched over something on the ground with more cops rushing to join them.

The alarming episode, which comes less than 24 hours after the White House went into lockdown when a man told Secret Service agents he had a bomb, lasted just 15 minutes.

6 Cops scoured the scene as roads around Capitol Hill remained closed for around three hours Credit: EPA

A police spokesperson said that no one was hit by the bullets but it was unclear who had fired the shots.

The Sun's own James Beal tweeted: "Cops open fire on Capitol Hill, Washington, after vehicle tries to ram police cruiser. Suspect in custody - no injuries."

Twitter user Scott Ferson said: "Cops ran to base of hill. Sounded like three shots fired".

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Filmmakers in a building nearby said they were locked inside a building after hearing gunfire on Capitol Hill.

Twitter user Rolf Wilkin reported seeing lots of heavily armed police after hearing shots fired.

This latest scare comes exactly a week after Khalid Masood went on a murderous rampage outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster.

Earlier on Wednesday three security guards were injured at a New York airport after they opened a suspicious bag sparking a hazardous material alert.

Almost exactly one year ago, US Capitol Police shot a man after he pulled a weapon at a US Capitol checkpoint as spring tourists thronged Washington.

The suspect was previously known to police, who had arrested him in October 2015 for disrupting House of Representatives proceedings and yelling he was a "Prophet of God."

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