US Secret Service shoots armed man outside White House

The US Secret Service shot a man outside the White House early on Sunday after an “armed confrontation”, the service said in a statement.

It had earlier received a tip-off from local police about a “suicidal individual who may be travelling to Washington DC from Indiana”, it said.

Its officers approached a man matching that description, “who brandished a firearm”, adding that shots were fired. The man is now in hospital in an “unknown” condition, it said.

President Donald Trump was not in the White House at the time, as he is spending the weekend at his Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago.

“As officers approached, the individual brandished a firearm and an armed confrontation ensued, during which shots were fired by our personnel,” the statement said.

The incident is now under investigation by Washington’s Metropolitan Police, which investigates all law-enforcement shootings in the District of Columbia.