WHITE HOUSE DAILY PRESS BRIEFING INTERUPTED BY BOMB THREAT

WASHINGTON, U.S.A. - In a rare interruption of the White House daily press briefing, reporters were hustled out of the room for about 30 minutes after a bomb threat was phoned in to local police.

The Secret Service and bomb-sniffing dogs searched the premises and eventually gave the all clear to resume the briefing by White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

The White House briefing room and parts of two US Senate office buildings were briefly evacuated within hours of each other yesterday after separate bomb threats.
It was not clear if the incidents were linked.

President Barack Obama was in the Oval Office, just steps from the briefing room, and was not evacuated, Earnest said. First lady Michelle Obama and their two daughters were nearby in the White House residence and also were not moved.

The immediate blocks around the White House, including Lafayette Square across Pennsylvania Avenue, were roped off and closed to tourists briefly, a Reuters witness said.

US Capitol police cleared a room in the Dirksen building and the courtyard of the Russell building, which house US senators and their staffs near the US Capitol but found no problem.

Source: Reuters, Fox