Trump rushed to underground bunker during White House protests

Several American media outlets reported that U.S. President Donald Trump was briefly taken to an underground bunker on Friday during protests outside the White House over the death of George Floyd, the black man killed in police custody in Minneapolis last week.

As hundreds of people gathered on Friday afternoon across the street in Lafayette Square Park, some threw rocks and tugged at police barricades just outside the executive mansion.

The White House was temporarily locked down.

Citing a White House official and a law enforcement source, the New York Times and CNN reported that Secret Service agents rushed the president, First Lady Melania Trump and their son, Barron, to an underground bunker.

Trump was there for a little under an hour before being brought upstairs.

A source told CNN that "if the condition at the White House is elevated to RED and the President is moved" to the Emergency Operations Center "Melania Trump, Barron Trump and any other first family members would be moved as well."

Floyd's death sparked one of the highest alerts on the White House complex since the September 11 attacks in 2001. In the days since security at the White House has been reinforced by the National Guard and additional personnel from the Secret Service and the U.S. Park Police.

On Sunday, the Justice Department also deployed members of the U.S. Marshals Service and agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration to supplement National Guard troops outside the White House, the AP reported, citing anonymous sources from the department.

(CGTN)