error TS1147: Import declarations in a namespace cannot reference a module.

A colleague mailed me the following error message when using TypeScript and the ‘import’ syntax to load module:

error TS1147: Import declarations in a namespace cannot reference a module.

Here is the related code. The error was thrown on the import statement:

	module SampleModule {
	import * as _ from "lodash";
	export class SampleController{
	constructor() {......
	}
	}
	}

view raw SampleModule.ts hosted with ❤ by GitHub

We found the solution quickly. After moving the ‘import’ statements outside the module, the error disappeared:

	import * as _ from "lodash";
	module SampleModule {
	export class SampleController{
	constructor() {......
	}
	}
	}

view raw SampleModuleCorrected.ts hosted with ❤ by GitHub