Was shot in chest, thigh and face by sheriff's l

A man wielding a machete and wasp spray was shot by police at a New Orleans airport Friday night after attacking two Transportation Security Administration workers and several passengers.

Richard White, 63, attacked both security officials and a number of passersby with insecticide, before drawing a machete from the waistband of his pants at the airport's security checkpoint.

He then started swinging the weapon, which a male TSA agent managed to block with a piece of luggage as White ran through a metal detector, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said.

Seconds later, White began chasing a female TSA agent, prompting Lt Heather Slyve, of the sheriff's department, to fire three rounds at him, striking him the face, chest and leg, Normand said.

White was taken to hospital, where he underwent surgery. His current condition remains unknown.

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'Attacker': Witnesses said that this man, Richard White, 63, drew a machete and attacked a TSA employee in New Orleans Friday night

Machete-wielder? This photograph from social media showed a man on the floor near a machete after the shooting at Louis Armstrong International Airport, New Orleans

Police clear out the area around Concourse B of Louis Armstrong International Airport on Friday evening

The female agent was also struck in the arm by a bullet while running from White, authorities said, adding that her wound was not life-threatening. Earlier reports had said she was slashed by White.

Photographs from inside Louis Armstrong International Airport Friday showed White laying on the floor with a machete close-by. Another showed a woman in a TSA uniform being stretchered away.

Other images depicted police flooding the area outside the terminal. On Saturday, bystanders described minutes of panic and chaos at the airport in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner.

'Everyone was ducking for cover. It's New Orleans. I knew they (the gunshots) were coming from the security checkpoint area,' said Garret Laborde, 31, a traveler trying to fly to Houston.

'I immediately ducked down ... Then we waited.' He called the scene 'instant chaos' with 'screaming, lots of females screaming for a short period of time.'

Some bystanders ran to get out of the way and received minor cuts and bruises, Normand said.

Emergency response: Police poured into the airport and ushered everybody away from the area where the shooting took place

White reportedly began swinging the weapon at the airport's security checkpoint, which a male TSA agent managed to block with a piece of luggag. Above, officers stand at the entrance to the airport

Dozens of police vehicles surround the entrance to New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport

Mr Laborde said he remained down for several minutes, before police began rushing around the airport, telling everyone to get back down. Evaucation sirens also started going off, he said.

Logan Tucker, 26, of Meridian, Mississippi, and Phillip Green, 33, of Houston, both headed to Houston for work as deckhands on a tugboat, said they were close to where events unfolded.

'I heard the gunshots,' Tucker said.

'It was pandemonium after that,' Green said. 'I took cover. I didn't want to become part of the story.

The Sheriff's Office said Friday there was no obvious connection between White and the airport.

A spokesman said: 'We don't know if he was traveling. We're still piecing together witness interviews.' On Saturday, a statement revealed that White 'had a few minor arrests' to his name.

Long lines of fliers are seen awaiting word of their departures in the airport's ticketing area on Friday evening

Chaos: Hundreds of people are pictured standing in the ticket area in the wake of White's alleged attack

Officers guard the entrance to concourse A and B at the New Orleans International Airport on Friday

At a news conference outside the airport, Normand described Friday's encounter in detail.

He said: 'He walked down the TSA pre-line, encountered the TSA officer who was checking the boarding passes with the scanning machine to be scanned.

'He was challenged at that time by the TSA officer. The response was, he pulled a can of wasp spray and sprayed the officer in the face.

'He proceeded past that checkpoint and encountered the second TSA officer and a third a third TSA officer almost simultaneously. One was a female, one was a male.

'He sprayed the male in the face.'

A long wait: Some bystanders ran to get out of the way and received minor cuts and bruises, Normand said

A deputy walks through Concourse B at the airport as the sheriff's department investigates the attack

Describing the shooting, he said: 'The law enforcement officer proceeded down the exit line to come around, coming in very close contact to the individual with the machete, and that officer fired three times, hitting the perpetrator once in the left chest, the left facial area and the left thigh, at that point in time.

'There was an innocent bystander who sustained a graze wound to the arm and there were a couple of members of the traveling public, while in the scrambling, while shots were fired, that happened to cut some limbs on some of the furniture there while trying to get away from that particular area.'

Brett Leonard, who flew into New Orleans from San Francisco Friday evening for a wedding, had just got off the plane when the attack took place.

Scene: The shooting and machete attack took place at Louis Armstrong International Airport on Friday night

Speaking to DailyMail.com, Leonard said police at the scene told him the man had been shot during the machete attack.

Of the response, Leonard said: 'All of a sudden a million police were outside'.

He said newly-arrived passengers like himself were hurried out of the terminal and into taxis.

The shooting took place in concourse B of the airport at around 8pm. The TSA confirmed that one of its employees had been injured, but said she was not seriously hurt.