Knifeman shot at airport after grabbing child

Police shot a man at one of America’s busiest airports after he grabbed a three-year-old boy at knifepoint and ran through a security area.

The child, who was unharmed, was returned to his mother, said Elaine Sanchez, spokeswoman for McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. The man was taken to hospital.

“The system worked,” Sanchez said. “As soon as the breach occurred, the police were in place.”

After the 25-year-old man grabbed the boy, he ran through an exit lane intended for passengers leaving the gates.

Three officers confronted him at the other side of the checkpoint, police said. One used a Taser gun to stun the man.

He dropped the child and charged at the officers, said police spokesman Jose Montoya. Two officers each fired once.

The man snatched the boy at a toy shop in an unsecured area just outside a gated section at the airport, officials said.

He had been browsing alone in a Kid’s Wear & Toys store for three or four minutes before snatching the child as he and his mother played with toy cars near the back of the shop, said Blanca Gomez, a store employee.

“I turned around and saw him run. The lady, she was screaming, ‘My baby, my baby!” said Gomez, adding that the man and the mother did not appear to know each other. “It was fast; it was scary.”

Police did not identify the man and no motive was disclosed.

The shooting is believed to the first at an airport since two federal air marshals shot dead a passenger at Miami International Airport in December. In that case, the man uttered bomb threats and tried to reboard a plane. It was later learned he had bipolar disorder.