A driver was detained after a truck crashed into security barriers near the White House on Monday night, officials said.
The white U-Haul box truck crashed into the barriers on the north side of Lafayette Square, at 16th Street, just before 10 p.m. ET.
The Secret Service said the incident, which took place just a few hundred feet from the White House, may have been intentional.
“There were no injuries to any Secret Service or White House personnel and the cause and manner of the crash remain under investigation,” Anthony Guglielmi, the Secret Service chief of communications, said in a statement Monday night.
Guglielmi said in a later statement posted to Twitter that the truck had been deemed safe by Washington D.C. police and that “preliminary investigation reveals the driver may have intentionally struck the security barriers.”
United States Park Police will file charges with investigative support from the Secret Service, Guglielmi said.
The Reuters news agency published an image showing a Nazi-style red flag emblazoned with a swastika laid on the floor beside the van. Reuters, citing its own photographer on the scene, reported that this and other pieces of evidence apparently taken from the truck had been placed on the sidewalk and were then seized by officers.
Authorities 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 appeared to be empty.
A spokesperson for the nearby Hay Adams hotel told NBC News that guests were told to evacuate the building but were allowed back in at 1 a.m. ET Tuesday morning.
President Joe Biden’s exact whereabouts at the time of the incident were unclear. He had met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy Monday night at the White House to discuss the debt limit.
