White House security upgraded amid car bomb threat

The White House upgraded its security late Saturday night after the driver of a car approaching the building claimed to have a bomb in it, CNN reported, quoting senior security officials.

One person was said to have been taken into custody after the incident and the vehicle was being checked. There was no immediate confirmation that there was an explosive device in the vehicle, according to the report.

Several streets around the White House were closed.

In a separate incident earlier Saturday, the White House said that an individual was apprehended after jumping a low metal barrier just outside the White House fence.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer wrote on Twitter that the individual “jumped bike rack on Pennsylvania Ave” but did not make it onto White House property.

President Donald Trump was not at the White House on Saturday. He and his family are spending the weekend at his resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

“The individual was immediately apprehended by United States Secret Service Uniformed Division Officers before reaching the White House fence,” the Secret Service said in a statement, adding that criminal charges are pending.

The incidents and the bomb threat came about a week after a man breached a 5-foot outer perimeter fence and scaled an 8-foot vehicle gate to gain entry to the White House grounds.

Video surveillance footage showed Jonathan Tuan Tran, 26, of Milpitas, California, climbing the fence near the Treasury Department adjacent to the White House security fence and making his way to a south entrance, the criminal complaint said. Tran, who the Secret Service said was carrying two cans of Mace, is charged with entering restricted grounds while carrying a dangerous weapon and faces up to 10 years in prison.

Trump was inside the executive mansion at the time. He praised the Secret Service for doing a “fantastic job” apprehending a “troubled person.”

It was the first known security breach at the White House since Trump took office two months ago.

Similar lapses occurred during the eight years that Barack Obama was president. In September 2014, an Army veteran with mental health issues scaled a fence on the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the White House and made it deep inside the building, to the East Room, before the Secret Service could detain him. The Obamas were not at home at the time.

The incident was one of several breakdowns by the Secret Service that ultimately led to the resignation of the agency’s director, Julia Pierson, the following month.

Trump has to find someone new to lead the agency. Joseph Clancy, a former agent who came out of retirement to succeed Pierson, announced his second retirement last month.