White House on lockdown, man arrested

The White House went under lockdown on Friday due to "suspicious activity", the US Secret Service said.

"North fence line of @WhiteHouse is closed due to suspicious activity, uniformed division is responding," the Secret Service tweeted.

It later said the suspect has been caught.

Reporters at the White House said earlier that they were told to leave the north lawn due to an unknown reason.

A statement issued by the Department of Homeland Security said:

    'Today at approximately 9:24 am, a male subject approached a US Secret Service Uniformed Division Officer on patrol along the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue near Lafayette Park.

    The individual stated that he had "dropped explosives" in the area. The subject was immediately taken into custody by the officer and all pedestrian and vehicular traffic was cleared from the area. Secret Service K-9 and MPD EOD teams were dispatched and swept both the individual and the surrounding areas.

    A cellular phone dropped by the subject was also located and swept by K-9 and EOD.

    No explosives were detected and the incident was deemed clear at 10:23 a.m. Ervin Pettaway, 33, of Washington, D.C., was charged with one count of felony threats and transported to MPD Second District for further processing.

The incident took place just after US President Donald Trump left for his trip to Hawaii and Asia.

Source: Khaleej Times