WASHINGTON: The US Secret Service detained a male suspect carrying a package and making “suspicious comments” near the White House Tuesday, according to an official who said he was taken into custody and explosives experts were deployed.

A Secret Service official said the man had approached uniformed officers near 15th and Pennsylvania at around 10:15 am, a block from the White House.

The man was separated from the package and detained in a police vehicle, a security perimeter was established and “the package is now in Secret Service custody,” the official said, asking not to be named.