TOI correspondent from Washington: US President Donald Trump was quickly evacuated from the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel on Saturday night when gunshots were heard outside the banquet hall moments before he was to deliver his speech. The US Secret Service said in a statement soon after that it was investigating the shooting near the main magnetometer screening area at the hotel, the same hotel where John Hinckley Jr. tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981. It also said that a person is in custody. While some eyewitness reports stated that a suspect was shot in the melee, the Secret Service stated that “the condition of those involved is not yet known, and law enforcement is actively assessing the situation,” suggesting that others may have been involved.Follow live updates: ‘Shotgun, handgun and several knives’ with him – Trump calls shooting suspect a ‘lone wolf’ The Secret Service also said that the President and First Lady are safe, as well as all other protected individuals present at the event, including Vice President J.D. Vance and several Cabinet members. The WHCA dinner is an annual roast and toast that Trump has avoided since becoming president, apparently because he believes most of the media is hostile toward him. But this year he made an exception, and instead of a well-known comedian or late-night host who would normally headline the gathering, he had to deliver the keynote address himself, with a “psychic expert” providing entertainment for the evening.Also read: Who was the shooter at Trump’s White House dinner? first image emergesBut about half an hour into the evening when dinner was about to be served, several popping sounds were heard outside the banquet hall while Trump and the first lady were seated on the stage. Secret Service agents stormed down the aisle shouting “Get down, get down”, while other agents swarmed around the President and First Lady and escorted them out. The security detail attached to various cabinet members also excluded him.About half an hour after the event, President Trump, while still at the hotel, said that he wanted the show to go on, but that he would heed the advice of law enforcement, and that if they insisted on cutting the program short, he would like to do it again. In fact, after WHCA president CBS White House reporter Weijia Jiang said the event would go on, most guests remained in anticipation of Trump’s return. Trump apparently wanted to return, but security officials advised him not to do so, as he indicated in a social media post shortly thereafter. “The DC Secret Service and law enforcement did a fantastic job one evening. They acted swiftly and bravely. The shooter has been captured, and I have recommended that we ‘let the show go on’ but be guided solely by law enforcement. They will make a decision soon. Despite that decision, the evening will be very different from planned, and we will just, frankly, have to do it all over again,” he said in a post, after which the event concluded — without dinner.Also read: Trump wanted ‘the show to go on’ after shooting at White House correspondents dinnerTrump’s message earned praise from many of his supporters, who characterized the incident as a third assassination attempt on him and praised his courage for willing to return to deliver his speech. Some supporters blamed the “radical left” for the alleged assassination attempt, while preliminary details were emerging.