Officials said that a driver was arrested after he crashed his truck into security barriers in the vicinity of the White House, on Monday night.
Just before 10 pm, a white U-Haul truck crashed into the 16th Street barriers at the north end of Lafayette Square. ET.
The Secret Service has said that the incident may have been deliberate. It happened just a few hundred yards from the White House.
Anthony Guglielmi said that the Secret Service’s chief of communications Anthony Guglielmi in a Monday night statement. “There was no injury to Secret Service personnel or White House staff and the cause and method of the crash are still under investigation.”
Guglielmi stated in a statement later posted on Twitter that Washington D.C. Police had deemed the truck safe and that a preliminary investigation revealed that the driver “may have intentionally hit the security barriers.”
Guglielmi stated that the Secret Service will assist in investigating and bringing charges against those involved.
The Reuters agency published a photo of a Nazi flag with a swastika emblazoned on it, lying beside the van. Reuters reported, citing a photographer who was on the scene, that the red flag and other evidence, which had apparently been taken from the van, were placed on the sidewalk before being seized by police.
The authorities have not made any comments on the flag. NBC News has contacted the Secret Service to get a comment.
Later, video footage showed that a robot opened the back of the truck which was empty.
A spokesperson from the nearby Hay Adams Hotel told NBC News guests were asked to evacuate but allowed back into the building at 1 a.m. ET Tuesday morning.
It was unclear where President Joe Biden was at the time the incident occurred. He met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Monday night to discuss the debt ceiling.
