COCOA BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Security guards are searching for a man who ran onto the grounds of Patrick Air Force Base in Florida after he was denied entrance at a security checkpoint.

The unidentified man pulled up to a security gate in his car at the base Monday morning but he was denied entrance. Lt. Karl Wiest says the man then jumped out of his car and started running onto the base.

Wiest says the search for the intruder hasn't interrupted normal operations at the base, which located outside Cocoa Beach along Florida's Space Coast.

Airmen and airwomen at the base help support space shuttle launches at nearby Kennedy Space Center, and they manage unmanned rocket launches at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.