The United States Secret Service unit ushered President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden to safety on Sunday night after a car ploughed into a parked SUV that was guarding the presidential motorcade.
Mr Biden was walking out of his campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware to his waiting armoured SUV when a sedan hit a US Secret Service vehicle closing off intersections for the president’s departure.
The silver sedan, which carried a Delaware licence plate, then tried to continue into a closed-off intersection, before Secret Service personnel surrounded the vehicle with weapons drawn and instructed the driver to put his hands up.
Mr. Biden was ushered into his waiting vehicle, where his wife was already seated, before being driven swiftly back to their home. His schedule was otherwise unaffected by the incident.
Special Agent Steve Kopek, a Secret Service spokesperson, said the vehicle that struck was securing the route of Mr Biden’s motorcade.
“There was no protective interest associated with this event and the President’s motorcade departed without incident,” Mr Kopek said.
The Bidens had emerged from the Biden-Harris 2024 headquarters in rainy downtown Wilmington at 8.07pm after having a meal with members of his re-election team at the time of the incident, according to a White House press pool report.
Moments after Mr Biden responded to a question from a reporter a silver sedan hit what seemed to be a motorcade SUV at the intersection across from the entrance of the campaign headquarters, the pool report stated.