US Secret Service officers are responding to a suspicious vehicle near the White House.
Agents evacuated the New Executive Office Building, located less than a block from the White House, around 8:30 am local time, according to the official Secret Service Twitter account. About 100 White House staff members were held in a park while the investigation was conducted, according to CNBC.
The Secret Service also closed down a portion of 17th Street, where the vehicle was parked, to car traffic. Photos posted on Twitter showed the DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department were also on the scene.
By 9:15am, a Secret Service spokesperson The Independent that the scene had been cleared, traffic had resumed, and workers in the office building had returned to work. He declined to comment further, citing an ongoing investigation.
DC Fire and EMS did not respond to a request for comment.
Pennsylvania Avenue and Lafayette Park – two roads close to the White House – remained closed to pedestrians.
The Secret Service detained the driver of a suspicious vehicle who drove up to a checkpoint near the White House last March.
Prosecutors said the man claimed to have a bomb in his trunk, then said the bomb was an asteroid and that he was in telepathic communication with President Donald Trump. He was charged with threatening and conveying false information about the use of an explosive and was transferred to the US Bureau of Prisons for a full psychiatric screening.
Mr Trump was not in the White House at the time, but at his private Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
