Bomb threat in White House press room, journalists evacuated

dimeji akinloye

June 10, 2015 4:05 PM

Report said someone had telephoned the Metropolitan Police Department, alerting it on an impending bomb disaster.

President Barack Obama speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House.

The United States Secret Service on Tuesday, June 9, evacuated journalists out of the White House press room following a bomb threat.

Report said someone had telephoned the Metropolitan Police Department, alerting it on an impending bomb disaster, which necessitated the security personnel to interrupt White House spokesman Josh Earnest's televised news conference by escorting press members out of the building.

This reportedly occurred around 2.00pm.

While journalists were out of the press room, secret service officers combed the venue looking for explosives with the help of a sniffer dog.

A little more than 30 minutes later, an all-clear signal was given, and journalists were led back to the press room.

According to Earnest, President Barack Obama and his family were not evacuated.

The White House evacuation came within hours of another evacuation happening at the Dirksen Senate Office Building, located in the northeastern part of the Capitol Hill.

This was after the U. S. Capitol Police received a phone call reporting a package was found in a room inside the building.

The Capitol Hill evacuation was taken as a precaution, which disrupted an ongoing hearing at the time.

The police later investigated the case but no result of the investigation was made available.

dimeji akinloye