Naomi Osaka describes being 'petrified' while caught in a stampede at the Barclays Center caused by fears of an active shooter

• Naomi Osaka was at New York's Barclays Center when a loud noise sparked fears of an active shooter.
• The tennis star wrote on Twitter that she was "petrified" during the resulting stampede.

Naomi Osaka has described being "petrified" during a stampede at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on Sunday, when fears of a nearby active shooter sparked mass panic.

According to the New York Times, 10 people were injured in the early hours when a loud noise heard on the street outside incited panic among those leaving a boxing match between Gervonta Davis and Rolando Romero.

The sound prompted people to frantically start running back into the venue, resulting in a stampede in which a number of individuals were knocked to the ground and trampled.

The police investigated and determined that no shots had been fired, but could not find the source of the noise, The New York Times reports.

Osaka was at the Barclays Center at the time with her rapper boyfriend Cordae and the tennis star shared her experience of the incident on social media.

"I was just in the Barclays center and suddenly I heard shouting and saw people running, then we were being yelled at that there was an active shooter and we had to huddle in a room and close the doors," the 24-year-old tweeted early Sunday morning.

"I was so fucking petrified man."

In a second tweet later on Sunday evening, Osaka then shared her feelings in more detail, suggesting that the regularity of mass shootings in the United States led her to fear she was part of another.

There have been 214 mass shootings in the US so far in 2022.

On Tuesday, a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school, while in early May, a white gunman killed 10 people in a racially motivated massacre at a Buffalo supermarket. In April, a gunman opened fire on a subway train in Brooklyn, injuring 23 people.

"This feeling of familiarity towards these frequent devastating situations might be exclusive to people living in America but the emotions I experienced in those few minutes I was waiting in that room is something I wouldn't want anyone to go through," she wrote.

"I cannot imagine a future if this continues, something has to evolve and hopefully it will be for the better because [this] should not be deemed normal.

"This is insanity."