A female soldier was pronounced dead after shooting herself on Monday. Officials stated that the incident occurred after she barricaded herself at a Virginia base.

The unnamed soldier reportedly shot herself in the head while authorities tried to negotiate with her after she barricaded herself on the third floor of the Combined Arms Support Command building in Fort Lee on Monday morning.

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During the encounter, the U.S. military base went on lockdown from 9 to 9:50 in the morning as reports of an 'active shooter' were released via social networking sites.

According to a statement published in Fort Lee's official Facebook page, the first responders reported that an armed female soldier purportedly fired the gun, which she pointed to her head, and subsequently injured herself.

Aside from the shooter, no other casualties have been reported.

The soldier was identified to be a sergeant 1st class, who has been serving the army for more than a decade.

The gun she used to shoot herself was not a service weapon, Major General Stephen Lyons told the Associated Press.

"We are sad for our soldier in arms that she faced those kinds of challenges she had to resort to those kinds of actions," he added, stating that the deceased soldier seemed upset and enraged during the incident.

According to him, officials have not yet confirmed if she is being treated for mental illness or if she suffered from drug or alcohol abuse.

An hour following the incident, the heavily trafficked base located 130 miles from Washington and 25 miles south of Richmond housing around 34,000 people had been reopened.

The term 'active shooter' is used to describe someone "actively trying to kill people". This is commonly used by the Department of Homeland Security.

Monday's shooting incident is the fourth violent act that occurred in the area in 2014, following a similar incident that happened in April when a sailor was reported to have killed himself as well.

Tagsarmy, Fort Lee, Virginia, sergeant