The man arrested after shots were fired inside the hotel where the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was being held on Saturday night has been named by law enforcement officials as Cole Tomas Allen.

The 31-year-old suspect is from Torrance in the Los Angeles region, California.

After he was detained by security agents inside the Washington Hilton hotel he told law enforcement officials he wanted to shoot officials in the Trump administration, two sources told CBS, the BBC’s US news partner.

In Sunday’s interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche said the motive of the suspected shooter was still under investigation, but that “preliminary” findings suggested he was targeting administration officials, “likely” including President Donald Trump.

Blanche said investigators were now looking at reports that the alleged gunman had assembled the weapon in the hotel, stressing that he “didn’t get very far”.

“He barely broke the perimeter,” Blanche said, adding that the suspect likely travelled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago, and then to Washington DC.

Citing its sources, CBS also said that at least five to eight gunshots were fired during the incident. CCTV footage posted by Trump shows a person rushing past security officers, who then turn and chase him.

At an earlier news conference, police said that security officials and the suspect exchanged fire, without saying how many shots were fired.

Washington interim police chief Jeffery Carroll said the suspect was not struck by gunfire but was taken to hospital for evaluation.

The suspect was a guest at the Washington Hilton hotel where the correspondents’ dinner was taking place, Carroll said, adding that he was “armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives”.

“At this point, it does appear he is a lone actor, a lone gunman,” the police chief said.

Trump later posted a close-up photo showing a shirtless man on the floor with his hands cuffed behind his back with Secret Service standing around him.

On Sunday, Trump told Fox News that the suspect “had a lot of hatred in his heart for a while”, and said his family knew he had “difficulties”. He added that the suspect had a “manifesto”, and suggested he was “strongly anti-Christian”.

US media are reporting a history of anti-Trump social media posts from 31-year-old Allen, citing law enforcement sources.

The BBC’s partner CBS News has seen a written document believed to be linked to the suspect. Other US media have reported on the same document.

It says the gunman wanted to target members of the Trump administration “from highest-ranking to lowest” and that while guests and hotel staff were not the intended targets, they would be attacked if necessary to get to the officials.

BBC News has not independently verified the alleged writings, which have been described as a manifesto and were reportedly sent to the suspect’s family members before the attempted attack.

Pictures later emerged showing FBI agents and police searching an area at a California address believed to be linked to the alleged gunman.

BBC Verify has been looking into the online presence of the suspect.

Los Angeles County’s voter registration records appear to show he had registered no party preference.

According to a Federal Election Commission record, seen by BBC Verify, in October 2024 Allen donated $25 (£18) to the fundraising platform ActBlue with the money earmarked for Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.

Allen describes himself as a mechanical engineer, game developer and teacher on LinkedIn.

According to his profile, he studied mechanical engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) a highly competitive university, where he took part in its Christian fellowship.

He graduated with a masters in computer science in 2025 from California State University, Dominguez Hills, marking the milestone by sharing a photo of himself in graduation robes to LinkedIn. He also developed and released a game called “Bohrdom” to the gaming platform Steam.

On Facebook, photos of Allen – which BBC Verify has matched to those of his arrest at the Washington Hilton hotel – show him smiling in family photographs at Christmas and graduation events.

In December 2024, he was named teacher of the month by C2 Education, which offers tutoring and college test preparation to students, according to the organisation’s Facebook post.

He has been a part-time teacher there since 2020, his LinkedIn profile says.

Jeanine Pirro, US attorney for Washington, said the suspect was now facing two charges – using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon.

She added that he would be formally charged on Monday in federal court.

Oil prices have risen after plans for a second round of peace talks between the US and Iran stalled again.

Brent, the global benchmark, rose by nearly 2% to $107.26 (£79.25) a barrel, while US-traded crude was up by 1% at $95.40.

It comes after US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Washington had cancelled plans to send a team to Pakistan for negotiations with their Iranian counterparts.

Global energy supplies have been under intense pressure since the start of the Iran war as the crucial Strait of Hormuz waterway has been effectively closed by the conflict.

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that “important discussions on bilateral matters and regional developments” were ongoing with Oman, its neighbour along the strait.

He posted on social media: “Our focus included ways to ensure safe transit that is to benefit all dear neighbors and the world. Our neighbors are our priority.”

Araghchi arrived in St Petersburg on Monday “with the aim of meeting and holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin”, Iranian state-run news agency Irna reported.

Around a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquified natural gas (LNG) usually passes through the Strait of Hormuz.

Brent crude has risen by more than 10% since Trump announced last week that he would extend a ceasefire with Tehran to give its leadership a chance to present a “unified proposal”.

Sophie Huynh, a portfolio manager and strategist at BNP Paribas, said the ongoing closure of the strait could affect the price of everything from “bin bags to medicine”.

“I think we’re underestimating the extent of which products could be affected by the oil shortage,” she told the BBC’s Today programme. “We’re not consuming crude, we’re consuming products.”

If the strait remains closed for more than a few weeks, the effects will be “really far reaching in terms of supply chain”, she said.

Oil traders appear to be less reactive to the latest headlines and are waiting for “credible” evidence of the conflict easing, said economics lecturer Goh Jing Rong from the Singapore Management University.

“I think traders want concrete evidence rather than just a fragile and reversible ceasefire agreement,” Goh said.

Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Saturday that there was “too much time wasted on travelling” and “too much work” in sending US representatives to Islamabad.

The president added that “there is tremendous infighting and confusion” within Tehran’s leadership.

“Nobody knows who is in charge, including them,” he said. “Also, we have all the cards; they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!”

Shares in Asia continued to climb, with some major stock markets hitting record highs despite having fallen sharply at the start of the conflict.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 1.7% on Monday, adding to a rise of nearly 14% in the past month.

The Kospi in South Korea has jumped by more than 20% in the past month, rising by2.5% on Monday.

Japanese and South Korean stocks were initially hit hard as their economies are heavily reliant on energy supplies from the Gulf.

I had just put my knife and fork down, and almost didn’t notice the booming sounds coming from somewhere in front of me in the direction of the main entrance to the ballroom at the Washington Hilton.

I did a kind of audio double take.

Within moments, I thought – that is the low thudding sound that semi-automatic weapons make.

As someone who is blind I focus on the sounds, and I heard the shattering of glass.

Then I felt the head of my colleague, Daniel, who I had just been speaking to, brush past and I realised he was diving for the floor.

So I followed him.

I was on my knees, under the table cloth, almost certain that here I was, another Saturday night, another presidential event, and in the midst of yet another shooting.

I was there in Butler, Pennsylvania in July 2024 when the president came within inches of losing his life.

The moments after that were filled with screaming and running people.

This time was different as within seconds, we were under the table.

Another colleague told me how, as the shots rang out, he saw dozens of people running into the ballroom from the corridor outside.

For the five or ten minutes we stayed under the table, all of us were waiting to see if a gunman had also run into the room and was about to start shooting at the two-and-a half thousand people in attendance at this dinner.

A colleague told me how she had seen the Secret Service on the stage behind us, rushing President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and Vice-President JD Vance away.

Other agents stood in their helmets and bulletproof vests, with their guns trained on the crowd, looking to see if there were more threats.

Just before the dinner, I had seen Health Secretary RFK Jr in a small room by the ballroom. I asked him if he was looking forward to the event, and he told me he was hungry and wanted to get on with it. He was seated at a table not far behind me.

And about 30m behind us towards the main doors, FBI Director Kash Patel was on the floor with the rest of us – shielding his girlfriend – as a Secret Service agent ran across the ballroom to his aid.

Immediately, your mind goes to the what, the why and – in this case – especially the how. How could a gunman have got close to the president, again?

All the roads had been closed around the Hilton for hours, blocked off by law enforcement. But the security at the venue itself wasn’t particularly heavy.

The man on the door outside only took a cursory look at my ticket from what must have been six feet away.

We took the lift down to the ballroom, and an agent wanded me but wasn’t particularly interested in the bleeps set off by the contents of my inside jacket pocket. They did not ask me to turn out my belongings.

In short, the security felt like a regular White House Correspondents Dinner – one without the sitting president in attendance.

As we were held in the ballroom after the shooting, we desperately tried to get phone signal to do some broadcasting and learn more.

I tried not to think too much about the scale of what had just happened.

Nevertheless, there was that telltale pricking at the eyes when your mind begins to think about what might have been. And how many of these things you have to go through in this country before your luck runs out.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his military to “vigorously attack Hezbollah targets” in Lebanon, two days after a ceasefire was extended by three weeks.

Fresh Israeli attacks followed the directive, which came after at least six people were killed in strikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday.

Further cross-border exchanges between the two sides have strained the truce agreement, highlighting the precarity of the ceasefire.

The agreement, which has seen a reduction in fire rather than a complete halt, was extended on Thursday after talks between the countries’ envoys in Washington.

Earlier on Saturday, Israeli strikes on a truck and a motorbike in the town of Yohmor al-Shaqeef in the Nabatieh district killed four people, Lebanon’s health ministry said, according to Agence-France-Presse.

Another two people were killed and 17 injured in an attack on the town of Safad al-Battikh, in the Bint Jbeil district, it said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had “eliminated” three Hezbollah members on Saturday who were driving “a vehicle loaded with weapons”, as well as another one riding a motorcycle.

It said two more armed members of the group were killed in the Litani area, where Israel has kept soldiers in the self-declared buffer zone, saying they “posed a threat to the IDF soldiers operating in southern Lebanon”.

The IDF later said a “suspicious aerial target was identified” in the area of Malkia, adding the “incident constitutes an additional violation of the ceasefire”.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, said it targeted an Israeli army vehicle in south Lebanon in retaliation for the attack on Yohmor al-Shaqeef, AFP reported.

Following Netanyahu’s order to attack the group, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported a pair of strikes in quick succession in a town in Bint Jbeil district, another on a town in Tyre district, and strikes on two more towns in Nabatieh district.

The Israeli military said it “struck Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure used for military purposes across southern Lebanon”.

It said it would “continue to operate decisively against threats directed at Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers, in accordance with directives from the political echelon”.

Israel continues to occupy a much of southern Lebanon and has been carrying out large-scale demolitions there.

An international press advocacy group said on Saturday attacks on journalists in Lebanon were “unacceptable”, after a journalist was among those killed in Israeli attacks on Wednesday.

The Media Freedom Coalition (MFC), a partnership of countries including the UK, urged all parties to allow members of the media to work freely and safely.

A statement from the co-chairs said: “The UK and Finland strongly condemn all violence directed against journalists and media workers.”

An Israeli strike killed Amal Khalil, who worked for a Lebanese newspaper, and injured freelance photographer Zeinab Faraj.

Officials in Lebanon say they were deliberately targeted as they sought shelter in a home after an initial air strike hit the vehicle in front of them, killing two men.

The IDF said it did not target journalists.

Donald Trump cancelled a planned trip by US officials to Pakistan for talks on the Iran war on Saturday, shortly after Tehran’s delegation had left Islamabad.

The US president said special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner would be wasting “too much time”, adding that if Iran wanted to talk “all they have to do is call”.

Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi held talks with mediator Pakistan, saying afterwards he had shared Iran’s position on ending the war but was yet to see whether the US was “truly serious about diplomacy”.

Diplomatic efforts have stalled despite Trump’s extension of a ceasefire that had been due to expire on 22 April to allow talks to continue.

Both sides have been locked in a standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, with Iran restricting passage through the key shipping route in the wake of the US and Israel commencing strikes in February, as well as over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

The US has since increased its naval presence in the strait – through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes – to block Iranian oil exports.

The White House had said the Iranians “want to talk” when the trip was announced on Friday, but Iran said there were no plans for a direct meeting.

Trump said the ceasefire would hold on Saturday despite hopes of another round of face-to-face talks fading.

Asked whether the cancelled US trip meant the war would resume, he told news site Axios: “No, it doesn’t mean that. We haven’t thought about it yet.”

Announcing the trip had been called off on Saturday, Trump said there was “tremendous infighting and confusion” within Iran’s leadership and that “nobody knows who is in charge, including them”.

He wrote on his Truth Social platform: “Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!”

The White House said on Friday that US Vice-President JD Vance had been “on standby” to join the talks had they proved successful.

He had led the US delegation in the first round of talks earlier this month and his absence from the initial planned delegation perhaps signalled that a major breakthrough was not expected.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian previously said Tehran remained open to talks but that “breach of commitments, blockade and threats are main obstacles to genuine negotiations”.

Pakistan has mediated contact between the two sides in recent weeks, including talks between senior US and Iranian officials on 11 April that ended without agreement.

Araghchi, whose trip also includes visits to Oman and Russia, wrote in a post on X that his visit to Pakistan had been “fruitful”.

He added that he had “shared Iran’s position concerning [a] workable framework to permanently end the war on Iran”, but said he had “yet to see if US is truly serious about diplomacy”.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif said that the pair had shared “a most warm, cordial exchange of views on the current regional situation”.

Araghchi is expected to return to Islamabad after visiting Oman, according to Iranian state media.

Washington’s opposition to Iran gaining nuclear weapons was cited as a reason for instigating the current conflict, with the US and Israel suspecting Tehran of seeking to develop an atomic bomb.

Tehran has always denied any such intentions, saying its nuclear programme was intended for energy generation, despite having enriched uranium up to near weapons-grade level.

Elsewhere, at least four people were killed in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday, according to the country’s state news agency. The Israeli military said Hezbollah had fired rockets at Israel.

Despite a ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group, both sides have continued to exchange fire in recent weeks and have accused one another of violating the agreement.

On Saturday, a statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military had been ordered to “vigorously attack Hezbollah targets in Lebanon”.