Security guards arrested a man who fired seven pistol shots at the United Nations headquarters this evening to protest against human rights abuses in North Korea.
The head of UN security, Mr Mike McCann, told reporters that someof the shots hit the building, "narrowly missing several employees,"but said no-one was physically injured.
The gunman, believed to be US citizen named Steve Kim, born in1945, was handed over to New York City police, who would presscharges, McCann said.
The protester was quickly overpowered, television coverage showed, but the shooting was an embarrassment for the UN, where security was tightened to unprecedented levels after the terroristattacks that destroyed the twin towers of New York's World TradeCenter on September 11th last year.
Greek Cypriot leader Glafcos Clerides and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart, Rauf Denktash, were in the building at the time for talks with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
The Security Council was also in session for a briefing by the chief UN arms inspector to Iraq, Hans Blix, and the director of theInternational Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed El-Baradei.
After firing the shots, the man threw some pieces of paper in the air which all contained "a rambling political message about human rights in North Korea," MR McCann said.
He said the papers had been handed over to the US authorities and declined to say more about their content.
AFP