San Diego gunman in custody; diversions at nearby airport end

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - San Diego police on Wednesday took into custody a gunman who had fired at officers responding to a domestic violence incident after an extended standoff that prompted the nearby international airport to temporarily divert inbound flights.

San Diego International Airport lifted a hold it had put on all arriving flights during the incident at an apartment complex in the city's Bankers Hill neighborhood, east of its runways.

There were no immediate reports of any injuries.

Police SWAT team members had been in an hours-long standoff with the suspect, who they said fired a high-powered rifle at officers who then set up a perimeter around the apartment.

Police said they had been negotiating with the gunman, and reporters on the scene said teargas and flash bang grenades were also used before he was taken into custody.

Local residents had been asked not to leave their homes, police said, and two schools in the area were placed on lockdown as a precautionary measure.

Police said officers were fired upon as they responded to a report of a domestic violence disturbance shortly after 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning. The gunman fired sporadically thereafter, they said.

The San Diego Union Tribune newspaper quoted an airport official as saying that arriving flights had been affected because they have to pass over the apartment complex when landing. Departing flights take off in the opposite direction, the official said, and so were unaffected.

(Reporting by Daniel Wallis in Denver and Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago; Editing by Sandra Maler and Eric Walsh)