A driver was arrested after a truck crashed into security barriers near the White House on Monday night, officials said.
The Secret Service said the incident, which happened just a few hundred feet from the White House, may have been intentional. Investigators recovered a Nazi flag from the scene.
A white U-Haul box truck crashed into barriers on 16th Street, just north of Lafayette Square, just before 10 p.m. ET.
“No Secret Service or White House personnel were injured and the cause and manner of the accident remain under investigation,” Secret Service communications chief Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement Monday night.
Guglielmi later said in a statement on Twitter that the truck was deemed safe by Washington DC police and that “a preliminary investigation suggests the driver may have intentionally hit the safety barriers.”
The United States Park Police will file charges with investigative support from the Secret Service, Guglielmi said.
Reuters news agency published a picture showing a Nazi-style red flag emblazoned with a swastika on the ground next to the van. Reuters, citing its own photographer at the scene and a witness, said this and other evidence taken from the truck were placed on the pavement and later seized by authorities.
Officials have not commented on the flag. NBC News has reached out to the Secret Service for comment.
Video footage later showed a robot opening the back of the truck, which was empty.
A spokeswoman for the nearby Hay Adams Hotel told NBC News that guests were told to evacuate the building but were allowed inside at 1 a.m. Tuesday.
The exact location of President Joe Biden at the time of the incident is unclear. He met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy at the White House on Monday night to discuss the debt ceiling.
