The US secret service says a person is under arrest after climbing a fence and getting onto the south grounds of the White House.
The secret service did not immediately return calls or emails requesting further detail.
The breach happened at about 11.38pm Friday night, while Donald Trump was at the White House.
The agency says the individual, whom it did not identify, was arrested without further incident. No hazardous materials were found during a search of a backpack the individual carried.
The secret service also says a search of the south and north grounds of the White House complex found “nothing of concern to security operations”.
Homeland security secretary John Kelly was briefed on the incident. The agency didn’t provide an update on the individual’s status. Standard practice is to hand intruders over to the local police department.
Two years ago the secret service’s leadership was overhauled after a series of security breaches, the most serious of which took place in September 2014, when a former army sniper, Omar Gonzalez, climbed the fence and sprinted down the length of the White House’s East Room.
Gonzalez carried a knife, and he had entered farther into the executive mansion than the agency had originally said. Barack Obama was not at the residence at the time of the incursion, which followed a series of other embarrassments. Eventually its chief at the time, Julia Pierson, resigned.
Then in November 2015, a man wearing an American flag jumped the White House fence late on a Sunday night, carrying a package that was found to be harmless. In April last year another fence climber was arrested, and in May a person was shot by secret service after he approached White House security with a gun.
The official appointed by Obama to replace Pierson, Joseph Clancy, said in February intended to resign in March so that Trump could name his own security chief.
source:guardian
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