Washignton, Jul 4 (IANS): A gunman who reportedly tried to hijack a helicopter was killed on Monday at an airport in the US.

Hillsboro police said the man tried to steal a helicopter at gunpoint outside a flight school at the Hillsboro Airport in Oregon, hopped back over the fence at the sight of an officer and was fatally shot after a chase into a nearby field, Xinhua reported.

The incident took place at 11:23 a.m. local time when the masked man went up to a helicopter with a flight instructor and a student inside as it was warming up at Hillsboro Aero Academy, Hillsboro police spokesman Lt. Henry Reimann was quoted as saying.

The man opened the door, pointed a gun at the student and ordered the student out.

After a police showed up, the man ran from the helicopter, went back over the barbed-wire fence and fled across a local road.

A second Hillsboro police officer encountered the man in a field and shot him, Reimann said. The man died at the scene.

No other injuries were reported.